Demean

Definition: Demean

Demean

Verb

1. Reduce in worth, character, etc.; disgrace; dishonour.

Date "demean" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1385. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Tips from 1870	Usage: Demean, Degrade. The word demean is often incorrectly used in the sense of degrade, lower. It should be used in the sense of behave, conduct, deport, and not in the sense of degrade. Source: Slips of Speech.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Demean

Synonyms: degrade (v), disgrace (v), put down (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Conduct	Bear oneself, behave oneself, comport oneself, demean oneself, carry oneself, conduct oneself, acquit oneself.
Humility	Verb: be humble; Adjective: deign, vouchsafe, condescend; humble oneself, demean oneself; stoop, stoop to conquer; carry coals; submit; submit with a good grace; (brook); yield the palm.
Improbity	Disgrace oneself, dishonor oneself, demean oneself; derogate, stoop, grovel, sneak, lose caste; sell oneself, go over to the enemy; seal one's infamy.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Demean

English words defined with "demean": Demeaned. (references)

Specialty definitions using "demean": Degrade, Demean ♦ Mask. (references)

Etymologies containing "demean": mien. (references)

"Demean" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 59.09% of the time. "Demean" is used about 22 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	59.09%	13	97,576
Lexical Verb (base form)	40.91%	9	117,287
Total	100.00%	22	N/A

Expression using "demean": demean oneself. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language		Translations for "demean"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		sillem (behave, comport, conduct oneself, deport, deport oneself, do, handle, move about, perform, Potter, quit, walk), poshtëroj (abase, humble, humiliate, let down, lower, mortify, vituperate, wipe the floor with), përulem (abase oneself, cringe, demean oneself, derogate, descend, kotow, kowtow, truckle). (various references)

Arabic		‏حط من قدر (degrade), ‏ذل (abase, be low, debase, degradation, humble, humbleness, humiliate, ignominy, let down, lowness, mortify, prostration). (various references)

Bulgarian		унижавам (abase, bring down, condescend, debase, degrade, disgrace, gall, humble, humiliate, lour, lower, mortify, prostrate, put down, sink), държа се (acquit oneself, act, bear, bear up, comport, comport oneself, conduct oneself, deport oneself, hold, hold on, hold one's own, quit, stand out, stick, walk). (various references)

Chinese		贬低 (Degrade, Degraded, Degrading, Demeaned, Demeaning, humbled, humbles, humbling). (various references)

Czech		snížit se (come down, lower, sag, slacken, slip, stoop). (various references)

Farsi		پست کردن (Abase, Abject, Debase, Degrade, Disparage, Disrate, Humble, Humiliate, Mortify, Post), رفتارکردن (Act, Behave, Handle, Treat). (various references)

French		déroger (derogate), dégrader (degrade, deteriorate). (various references)

German		sich benehmen (behave, behave oneself, conduct, conduct oneself, to behave). (various references)

Greek		συμπεριφέρομαι (behave, comport, conduct oneself), εξευτελίζω (abase, debase, degrade, depredate, derogate, discredit, humiliate, vilify). (various references)

Hebrew		ל�"שפיל (abase, debase, degrade, humble, humiliate, lower, mortify, snub). (various references)

Hungarian		viselkedik (behave, comport oneself, conduct oneself, demean oneself, deport oneself, to acquit oneself, to behave, to behave oneself, to comport, to comport oneself, to conduct, to conduct oneself, to demean oneself, to deport oneself, to go on, to queen it), magatartást tanúsít (to demean oneself). (various references)

Indonesian		merendahkan diri. (various references)

Italian		avvilire (abase, be disheartened, debase, degrade, degrade oneself, dishearten, humble, lose heart). (various references)

Pig Latin		emeanday

Portuguese		rebaixar (abase, banalize, belittle, bemean, bust, crab, debase, decry, degrade, demote, denigrate, depreciate, diminish, disparagement, flank, humble, humiliated, lower, mark down, put down, skiver, undercut, vilipend, vulgarize), humilhar (abase, abash, bemean, cast down, cheapen, depress, humble, humiliate, let down, louse, lower, mortify, prostrate), comportamento (actions, bearing, behavior, behaviorism, behaviour, behaviourism, carriage, comportment, conduct, course, dealing, demeanor, demeanour, deportment, moral, ongoings, performance, proceeding, walking), aviltar (debase, degrade, profanity, shame, smirch, vilify). (various references)

Romanian		se comporta (bear, behave, carry oneself, comport, comport oneself, demean oneself, deport oneself, do, quit), se înjosi (abase, cower, demean oneself, lower, stoop). (various references)

Russian		унижать (abase, degrade, depreciate, humiliate, lower, mortify). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		poniziti (abase, debase, degrade, downgrade, humble, humiliate, mortify), ponašati se (acquit, behave, comport, conduct oneself, deport oneself). (various references)

Spanish		degradarse (abase oneself, degrade), degradar (abase, bastardize, break, cashier, corrode, corrupt, debase, degrade, demote, demount, down grade, mortify, put down, shade off), degradación (abasement, breakdown, debasement, decomposition, degeneracy, degradation, degrade, demotion, denudation, deterioration, impairment, reduction, shading, solodisation, solodization, solotization, surface deterioration, thin-down), bajar (abase, abate, bow, bring down, climb down, come down, cut, decline, decrease, deign, demote, depreciate, descend, detrain, discount, dismount, download, drop, drop off, duck, ebb, fall, fall away, fall back, fall off, get down, get off, get out, go below, go belowdecks, go down, hand down, hang, hop off, let down, lift down, lower, pull down, put down, rebate, recede, reduce, ring down, sag, set out, sink, step down, stoop, subside, take down, trail, turn down, walk down, walk off, wind down). (various references)

Swedish		nedlåta sig (condescend, demean oneself, descend), förnedra sig (abase oneself, demean oneself, descend). (various references)

Turkish		davranmak (act, bear oneself, behave, comport oneself, conduct oneself, cut up, demean oneself, deport oneself, do by, do to, proceed, treat, use), kendini küçük düşürmek (demean oneself), kendini alçaltmak (demean oneself, lick the dust), gibi hareket etmek (demean oneself). (various references)

Ukranian		принижувати (belittle, невимушенІсть [f], deject, derogate, detract, humble, humiliate, lower, mortify, slur, snub, spite, vilify). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	descendam, descendamus, descendant, descendas, descendat, descendatis, descende, descendebant, descendebat, descendendi, descendens, descendent, descendente, descendentem, descendentes, descendentibus, descendentis, descendentium, descendentque, descenderant, descenderat, descendere, descenderem, descenderent, descenderes, descenderet, descenderint, descenderintque, descenderit, descendero, descenderunt, descenderuntque, descendes, descendet, descendetis, descendi, descendimus, descendique, descendissent, descendisset, descendissetque, descendisti, descendit, descendite, descenditis, descenditque, descendo, descendunt, descensione, descensu, descensum, descensus, prosternamur, prosternat, prosternebaris, prosternens, prosternent, prosternerem, prosternerent, prosterneret, prosternite, prostrata, prostrati, prostratis, prostratorum, prostratus, prostraverunt, prostravi, prostravit. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "demean": demeaned, demeaning, demeanor, demeanors, demeanour, demeanours, demeans. (additional references)
	Words containing "demean": misdemeanant, misdemeanants, misdemeanor, misdemeanors. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Demean" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: daemeon, Damaen, Damajan, Damavand, dameon, Damerau, dantean, Dedman, deeah, Dejean, deman, Demanet, demeane, demear, demeen, demen, Demeny, demian, Demianuk, demin, Demsar, D'enea, Denevan, Denmead, Densan, Deresan, Deyman, dimen, Dimona, Dineen, Djemaa, dman, Domela, Domjan, Donegani, edmen, emena, Idumean, keemun, neeman. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "demean" (pronounced di'mē"n)
3	-m ē" n	Amin, mean, mien.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-d-e-e-m-n"
	-1 letter: adeem, admen, amend, edema, emend, enema, maned, menad, named.
	-2 letters: amen, dame, damn, dean, deem, deme, dene, made, mane, mead, mean, meed, mend, name, need, neem, nema.
	-3 letters: and, ane, dam, dee, den, eme, end, mad, mae, man, med, men, nae, nam, nee.
	-4 letters: ad, ae, am, an, de, ed, em, en, ma, me.
	Words containing the letters "a-d-e-e-m-n"
	+1 letter: amended, amender, beadmen, bedeman, benamed, demeans, endgame, headmen, leadmen, meander, menaced, reedman, renamed, seedman.
	+2 letters: adeeming, aldermen, amenders, anthemed, beadsmen, bedamned, bedesman, bemadden, bemeaned, bemoaned, daemones, dalesmen, damneder, dampened, dampener, demanded, demander, demeaned, demeanor, dementia, emanated, embanked, emendate, emplaned, enameled, enamored, encamped, endamage, endameba, endemial, endgames, enflamed, enframed, enjambed, ependyma, eudaemon, examined, freedman, ganymede, gendarme, headsmen, lamented, leadsmen, lemonade, maddened, maenades, mannered, meanders, megadyne, mendable, menhaden, nematode, redemand, remained, remanded, remanned, seedsman, unseamed.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.