demoralize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to deprive (a person or persons) of spirit, courage, discipline, etc.; destroy the morale of.
The continuous barrage demoralized the infantry.
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to throw (a person) into disorder or confusion; bewilder.
We were so demoralized by that one wrong turn that we were lost for hours.
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to corrupt or undermine the morals of.
verb
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to undermine the morale of; dishearten
he was demoralized by his defeat
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to debase morally; corrupt
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to throw into confusion
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has demoralizedperfect 3rd person singular
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have demoralizedperfect
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have been demoralizingperfect progressive
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am demoralizingprogressive 1st person singular
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is demoralizingprogressive 3rd person singular
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has been demoralizingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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are demoralizingprogressive
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demoralizingparticiple
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demoralizessingular 3rd person
Past
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had demoralizedperfect
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had been demoralizingperfect progressive
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was demoralizingprogressive singular
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demoralizedsimple
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demoralizedparticiple
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were demoralizingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of demoralize
From the French word démoraliser, dating back to 1785–95. See de-, moral, -ize
Explanation
If something demoralizes you, it makes you feel bad or hopeless. When your soccer team was trounced by the last-place team in the league, the loss seemed to demoralize everyone, from players to coaches to fans. Demoralize can also mean what it looks like, "to remove the morals of." For example, parents worry that R-rated movies will demoralize their children. In other words, they fear kids will lose their sense of what's right and wrong if they see glamorous actors indulging in bad behavior.
Vocabulary lists containing demoralize
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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.
