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
-
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
-
(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:
For every $1 invested in protecting or restoring nature, about $30 still goes into activities that degrade it, according to UN figures.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
The company eschews cooking ahead or food warmers, as that would degrade its quality and lead people to load up on other options.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Recognizing that 9/11’s horrors compounded over the years does not degrade the memory of its initial victims.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
The environmental impact of traditional balloons, which despite their advertising do not degrade, is largely unknown to the general public.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
In this they are quite unlike testimonies, which degrade as they pass from ear to ear in an endless game of Chinese whispers; eighteenth-century probability theorists actually devised formulae for calculating this rate of degradation.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
They said these often contained heavy metal salts or nitrosamines that can leach into the environment once the balloon degrades.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
"Most importantly, we found that the exact spatial arrangement of these neighboring groups dramatically changes how fast the polymer degrades," Gu said.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 4, 2026
If it degrades rapidly, that means insects are attracted to the plentiful organic matter.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2025
The updated lawsuit also points to a blog post OpenAI published the day the initial lawsuit was filed, in which it acknowledged that its safety training sometimes degrades in long conversations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
It degrades the dignity of the community, by increasing the number of illegitimate children.
From Monks, Popes, and their Political Intrigues by John Alberger
The Tennessee Department of Correction has not specifically addressed an allegation from Pike's legal team that the pentobarbital it used was "degraded".
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Nothing has degraded more for Latino men, however, than the simple pleasures of life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
If some of these satellites get hacked, damaged, derailed, or destroyed, America’s ability to fight a war would be seriously degraded.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
There are a few fun visual gags about the degraded far-future — a hospital named St. God’s, the city’s digital clock tower being stuck on a blinking 12:00 — but its punchlines tend toward nasty.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
The only way to eradicate transformation was to digest the material with an enzyme that, of all things, degraded DNA.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
That produces a different effect from existing drugs that target BCL6 by blocking or degrading it.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Residents say children remaining in wider Oleshky are suffering from malnutrition, a lack of medical services, and are "degrading" without access to education.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
“The experience was traumatizing, degrading and humiliating,” André said when the lawsuit was filed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
A ride on a people mover feels even more degrading in comparison to the alternative mode serving other travelers.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
They said it in such a degrading way; they never said “please” or asked if we minded.
From "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
