debase
Americanverb (used with object)
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debases,
present (3rd person singular)
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debased,
past participle, past
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debasing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
debasesimple
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debasessimple
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have debasedperfect
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has debasedperfect
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am debasingprogressive
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are debasingprogressive
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is debasingprogressive
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have been debasingperfect progressive
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has been debasingperfect progressive
Past
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debasedsimple
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had debasedperfect
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was debasingprogressive
-
were debasingprogressive
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had been debasingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of debase
Explanation
To debase something is to make it corrupt or impure. If your lemonade stand sells “pure lemonade,” you’d insist on using real lemons instead of a mix; using a mix would debase your product. Debase is often used in the context of two things: coins and people. To debase a coin is to replace some of the precious metal in the coin with metal of lesser value. To debase a person is to corrupt them, often by driving them to perform an immoral act like (gasp!) using the lemonade mix. Just promise us you won’t do it.
Vocabulary lists containing debase
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"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Japan is not choosing to debase the yen.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
His motives are obvious: He’s a bully and it’s fun for him to watch people debase themselves to please him.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026
These stories tell us that Diogenes was chased out of his native Sinope, on the north coast of what’s now Turkey, for his supposed role in a scheme to debase the city’s currency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
I knew he was trying to be menacing, but I didn’t feel fear so much as astonishment at the way this adult was willing to debase himself to ruin our night.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2025
He replied to Pavlov that he could not debase his own standards of sportsmanship and would see the match through despite Fischer’s outrageous conduct.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
In order to emerge victorious in his quest to bring the World Cup to Mexico, De la Torre debases himself and backstabs shamelessly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
The Kremlin spokesman said it was "unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin. But it debases those who use such vocabulary".
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2024
And that vision, that fight, in the midst of everything that degrades and debases you, you pull upon community, you pull upon cultural power, you pull upon your spirituality, and you pull upon hope.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2020
Said corporation's very wealthy owner insults the court and her client, then debases Julius himself after the judge has the man jailed for contempt, which he is well within his rights to do.
From Salon ● May 14, 2020
It is so simple a fact and one that is so hard, apparently, to grasp: Whoever debases others is debasing himself.
From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
At a time when even the greatest achievements are debased in a culture that gives equal weight to meritricious novelty, is it even worth the trouble?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
Whereas the European gothic, he concludes, was “an enlightened attack on a debased ruling class or entrenched superstition,” its American version emerged as “a Calvinist exposé of natural human corruption.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
The very concepts of intellectualism, and of objective knowledge itself, have been debased by a kind of Gresham’s Law, with the bad driving out the good.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2026
Scottish National Party MP John Nicolson said the post was "nauseating" and that it "cheapened and debased" politics.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2023
Fearing the worst, the debased tlatoani made a begging public appearance on behalf of the Spanish.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Robbie’s most deliciously debasing scene is when she throws coins on the ground for a desperate beggar — and then that person forces her to watch as he picks them up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
Argentina has a history of debasing its currency, which is why its people keep billions of dollars in coffee cans, home safes and mattresses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
Dismissing the case, Mr Justice Chamberlain said Yaxley-Lennon's own barrister had accepted there was no evidence his client had been segregated "for the purpose of breaking his resistance or humiliating or debasing him".
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2025
But Kidman isn’t debasing herself or regressing just for the sick sight of it all.
From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2024
It is so simple a fact and one that is so hard, apparently, to grasp: Whoever debases others is debasing himself.
From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
