demote
[dih-moht]
- to reduce to a lower grade, rank, class, or position (opposed to promote): They demoted the careless waiter to busboy.
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Origin of demote
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for demotion
Contemporary Examples
Moving to Hulu like Larry King could give him free rein—but is that too much of a demotion from venerable Tonight?
Historical Examples
He just felt that he was reasonably secure against promotion, and that he need not be afraid of "demotion."
John Wesley, Jr.Dan B. Brummitt
demote
- (tr) to lower in rank or position; relegate
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Word Origin
C19: from de- + (pro) mote
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for demotion
n.
1901, agent noun from demote (v.).
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demote
v.
1881, American English coinage from de- + stem of promote. Said to have been Midwestern in origin.
Regarding an antithesis to 'promote,' the word universally in use in Cambridge, in Harvard College, is drop. The same word is in use in the leading schools here (Boston). I hope I may be counted every time against such barbarisms as 'demote' and 'retromote.' [Edward Everett Hale, 1892, letter to the publishers of "Funk & Wagnalls' Standard Dictionary"]
Related: Demoted; demoting.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper