degrade
Americanverb (used with object)
-
degrades,
present (3rd person singular)
-
degraded,
past participle, past
-
degrading
present participle
-
to lower in dignity or estimation; bring into contempt.
He felt they were degrading him by making him report to the supervisor.
- Antonyms:
- exalt
-
to lower in character or quality; debase.
- Antonyms:
- exalt
-
to reduce (someone) to a lower rank, degree, etc.; deprive of office, rank, status, or title, especially as a punishment.
degraded from director to assistant director.
- Antonyms:
- promote
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to reduce in amount, strength, intensity, etc.
-
Physical Geography. to wear down by erosion, as hills.
-
Chemistry. to break down (a compound, especially an organic hydrocarbon).
verb (used without object)
-
degrades,
present (3rd person singular)
-
degraded,
past participle, past
-
degrading
present participle
-
to become degraded; weaken or worsen; deteriorate.
-
Chemistry. (especially of an organic hydrocarbon compound) to break down or decompose.
verb
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(tr) to reduce in worth, character, etc; disgrace; dishonour
-
(tr) to reduce in rank, status, or degree; remove from office; demote
-
(tr) to reduce in strength, quality, intensity, etc
-
to reduce or be reduced by erosion or down-cutting, as a land surface or bed of a river Compare aggrade
-
chem to decompose or be decomposed into atoms or smaller molecules
Synonym Usage
See humble.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
degradesimple
-
degradessimple
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have degradedperfect
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has degradedperfect
-
am degradingprogressive
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are degradingprogressive
-
is degradingprogressive
-
have been degradingperfect progressive
-
has been degradingperfect progressive
Past
-
degradedsimple
-
had degradedperfect
-
was degradingprogressive
-
were degradingprogressive
-
had been degradingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of degrade
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English degraden, from Late Latin dēgradāre, from Latin dē- de- + grad(us) “step, rank, progress” ( see grade) + -āre, infinitive verb suffix
Explanation
To degrade means to reduce the worth of something, as when smoke and pollution degrade the environment. The word can also mean to disrespect or insult: thoughtless comments can degrade a person. If you whistle at a passing woman, you're being disrespectful — your behavior degrades women. Degrade is often used to mean to insult someone because of their gender or race. Degrade also means to break down. Old paper or photographs can degrade when left in the light — their material breaks down so that they crumble at a touch.
Vocabulary lists containing degrade
30 GRE Words Beginning with "D"
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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How Low Can You Go? Synonyms for "Downward"
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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:
Laboratory tests showed that enzymes from very distantly related animals, including a sponge, an earthworm and a springtail, could also degrade microbial PHAs.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
The four former commissioners have signed a joint letter arguing that the gondola proposal “would enable a private development to permanently and irreparably shrink, degrade, and destroy the integrity of a state park.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
Google hit out at Brussels, saying the EU forced the company to degrade products in the bloc.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Since then, the U.S. military has launched multiple rounds of strikes that officials said were intended to degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the strait.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
I wished we did not have to degrade the house with our modern jig-tunes so out-of-place and unromantic.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
Diet activates autophagy -- a cellular "clean-up" process that degrades and recycles damaged proteins.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2025
Ferrari also faces the risk of its EV losing value faster than its traditional models as the battery degrades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Sickness spreads, often directly through viruses or indirectly by depleting family resources, putting stress on people that degrades their health.
From Salon ● May 27, 2025
“It significantly degrades trust ... and people will also be hurt because they won’t trust the messaging.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2025
A punishment that degrades the punished will degrade the man who inflicts the punishment, and will degrade the government that procures the infliction.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Miscellany by Robert Green Ingersoll
Power lines have degraded, causing the loss of about 16% of the grid’s electricity, according to research by Torres.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Save the Redwoods League last month conveyed the 125-acre property to the Yurok Tribe following a years-long project to restore the degraded industrial site to a diverse riparian habitat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
The device worked as intended and then fully degraded within two weeks after activation.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
Even worse, recognizing the long con has degraded offline interactions as well.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026
Far from being modern breadbaskets, they include areas ranking today as somewhat dry or ecologically degraded: Iraq and Iran, Mexico, the Andes, parts of China, and Africa’s Sahel zone.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The researchers found that excess EXO1 destabilizes newly formed DNA through two main mechanisms, expanding single-stranded DNA gaps and degrading reversed replication forks.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 20, 2026
Rigid operational dictates cause infrastructure investment to plummet, ultimately degrading track quality and severely hurting long-term economic productivity.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
But Nowak's family said the way he was treated by police was "inhumane and degrading".
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
The hapless man, Mr. de la Bédoyère writes, “sat by, unable or perhaps unwilling by virtue of his status and deference to do anything about the degrading spectacle.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
“It was a clear sign that lenders had lost it, constantly degrading their own standards to grow loan volumes,” Burry said.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
