Degrade

Definitions: Degrade

Degrade

Verb

1. Reduce the level of land, as by erosion.

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

3. Lower the grade of something; reduce its worth.

Date "degrade" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Food & Agriculture	In timber, any feature(whether intrinsic, e. g. knots, or developing later, e. g. decay, splits, bad sawing)that lowers its utility and/or commercial value and may therefore lead to its relegation to a lower grade or its rejection as a cull. Source: European Union. (references)
	The general lowering of land surfaces by erosion. Source: European Union. (references)
	A)generally, in timber and other forest produce, any process that lowers their value for any purpose; b)more particularly, in timber, a reduction in grade, e. g. in logs from breakage or insect attack, in lumber from drying or faulty processing. Source: European Union. (references)
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: Degrade

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

Antonym: aggrade (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Deterioration	Deteriorate; weaken; put back, set back; taint, infect, contaminate, poison, empoison, envenom, canker, corrupt, exulcerate, pollute, vitiate, inquinate; debase, embase; denaturalize, denature, leaven; deflower, debauch, defile, deprave, degrade; ulcerate; stain; (dirt); discolor; alloy, adulterate, sophisticate, tamper with, prejudice.
Disrepute	Tarnish, stain, blot sully, taint; discredit; degrade, debase, defile; beggar; expel; (punish).
Vice	Render vicious; Adjective: demoralize, brutalize; corrupt; (degrade).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Finding new and preferably disgusting ways to degrade a friend's mother was always held in high regard. (Stand by Me; writing credit: Raynold Gideon)
Lyrics	Or they can degrade, or even worse, they can teach hate ("Sing For The Moment"; performing artist: EMINEM)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Runoff from this livestock yard may enter a nearby stream and degrade the water qulaity.Credit: Tim McCabe.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Aristotle	All paid employments absorb and degrade the mind.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Other avenues involving enzymes that degrade Phe in the digestive system also hold promise. (references)
		Proteases are enzymes that degrade other proteins and have important regulatory roles in cells. (references)
		Investigations should examine a wide range of potential new treatments other than medical nutritional therapy for PKU to include, at a minimum, enzymes that might degrade Phe in the intestine, the role of LNAA, tetrahydrobiopterin supplementation and the potential role of somatic gene therapy. (references)
Business		Japanese consumers are extremely price conscious, so wide variations in retail prices can degrade the product's image. (references)
Economic History	Tunisia	HEAVY SUBSCRIBER DEMAND AND LIMITED-CAPACITY CONNECTIONS COMBINE, HOWEVER, TO SERIOUSLY DEGRADE THE SPEED AND QUALITY OF INTERNET CONNECTIONS DURING HOURS OF PEAK USAGE. (references)
Human Rights	Hong Kong	Human rights and lawyers' organizations long have expressed concern that these exceptions to the Court of Final Appeal's power of final adjudication and this interpretation mechanism could be used to limit the independence of the judiciary or could degrade the courts' authority. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Gerald Ford	1974-1977	Hard drugs, we all know, degrade the spirit as they destroy the body of their users.
Ronald Reagan	1981-1989	But we must revise or replace programs enacted in the name of compassion that degrade the moral worth of work, encourage family breakups, and drive entire communities into a bleak and heartless dependency.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Degrade" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 80.00% of the time. "Degrade" is used about 70 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)	80%	56	45,296
Lexical Verb (base form)	18.57%	13	97,576
Noun (singular)	1.43%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	70	N/A

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

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "degrade"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		degradoj (break, downgrade, reduce), ul në gradë (downgrade), pakësoj (abate, abridge, curtail, cut down, deflate, diminish, lessen, lower, narrow, pare, razee, reduce, retrench, slacken, understate, vitiate). (various references)

Arabic		‏نزل رتبة, ‏لوث (bedaub, befoul, besmear, besmirch, blot, contaminate, daub, defile, dirty, discredit, file, foul, pollute, smear, smirch, soil, spot, stain, sully, taint, tarnish), ‏حت, ‏حط من قدر (demean), ‏جرده من, ‏إنحط (decay, decline, degenerate, ebb, retrograde), ‏أهان (abase oneself, affront, debase, dishonor, dishonour, flout, give offence, give offense, injure, insult, malign, offend, oppress, outrage, revile, slap, slight, take offence, take offense), ‏أخزى (discountenance, discredit, disgrace, dishonor, dishonour, humiliate, shame). (various references)

Bulgarian		унижавам (abase, bring down, condescend, debase, demean, disgrace, gall, humble, humiliate, lour, lower, mortify, prostrate, put down, sink), разжалвам (bust, cast, displume, reduce), разлагам (analyse, analyze, break down, contaminate, decompose, disintegrate, dissolve, molder, putrefy, resolve, scan), опозорявам (attaint, bring on reproach, defame, disgrace, dishonor, dishonour, gibbet, stigmatize, tear down), намалявам (abate, abbreviate, allay, attenuate, bring down, clip, contract, curtail, cut back, cut down, decline, decrease, deduct, deflate, deplete, detract, dim, diminish, ebb, extenuate, fine, impair, knock off, lessen, lighten, lull, minify, minimize, moderate, modify, pare down, prejudice, put back, put down, reduce, remit, run down, scant, shorten, shrink, sink, slacken, subdue, take from, thin, thin away, thin down, understate, wane, work down), понижавам цветната гама, понижавам (abase, abate, demote, disgrace, flatten, impair, lower, reduce, relegate, sing flat, whittle away), израждам се (deteriorate), деградирам (abase, break, stoop), дегенерирам (retrograde), денудирам. (various references)

Chinese		降級 , 鐫 (engrave), 贬低 (Degraded, Degrading, Demean, Demeaned, Demeaning, humbled, humbles, humbling). (various references)

Czech		degradovat (bust, demote, displume, downgrade, reduce, relegate), zbavit hodnosti, ponížit (abase, debase, humble, humiliate, tame). (various references)

Danish		denudation (degradation, denudation), nedbrydning (breakdown, catabolism, decay, decomposition, degradation, denudation, deterioration, detrition, disintegration, dissimilation, reaction, soil damage, soil degeneration, soil degradation, soil deterioration, transformation), forvitring (decomposition, degradation, denudation, disaggregation, disintegration, facturing, fade, natural disintegration, stain, weathering), forringelse (degeneratio, degeneration, degradation, deterioration, impairment, spoilage), fejl (aberration, breakdown, defect, deficiency, error, failure, fault, fault condition, flaw, hard error, hardware error, malfunction, mistake), afdækning (coverage, covering operation, degradation, denudation, guard, hedge, hedging, insulation, lute, masking, screed, screeding). (various references)

Dutch		verlagen (abase, abate, attenuate, decrease, lower), degraderen. (various references)

Esperanto		degradi. (various references)

Farsi		پست کردن (Abase, Abject, Debase, Demean, Disparage, Disrate, Humble, Humiliate, Mortify, Post), منحطکردن , تنزل رتبه دادن (Demote), خفت دادن . (various references)

Finnish		denudaatio (degradation, denudation), vika (blemish, breakdown, crash, defect, deficiency, demerit, failure, fault, flaw, loophole, malfunction), maanpinnan kulutus (degradation, denudation), arvonalennus (accumulated depreciation, decrease of value, depreciation, markdown, mark-down, provision for depreciation, write down, write down of bank building, write off). (various references)

French		avilir (debase, depreciate). (various references)

German		degradieren (bust, demote, downgrade, reduce, relegate, to demote, to downgrade). (various references)

Greek		υποβιβάζω (abase, demote, lower, relegate), εξευτελίζω (abase, debase, demean, depredate, derogate, discredit, humiliate, vilify). (various references)

Hebrew		לזלזל (decry, despise, disparage, disregard, look down on, slight, talk down, underrate), ל�"ורי�" ב�"ר�'�" (abase, demote, downgrade), ל�"שפיל (abase, debase, demean, humble, humiliate, lower, mortify, snub), לבזות (abase, blackguard, despise, scorn). (various references)

Hungarian		lefokoz (demote, to degrade, to demote, to disgrace, to disrate, to reduce to the ranks, to vignette), lealacsonyít (humiliate, to abject, to debase, to degrade, to disparage, to humiliate, to lay flat, to lay low). (various references)

Indonesian		menurunkan (bate, demote), membinatangkan. (various references)

Italian		degradare (abandon ship, abase, debase, degrade oneself, demote, depreciate, derate, deteriorate, downgrade, reduce). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		落ちる (to crash, to degenerate, to degrade, to drop, to fail, to fall down), 位�'下す (to degrade, to lower in rank), � �ちる (to crash, to degenerate, to degrade, to drop, to fail, to fall down). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		おちる (to crash, to degenerate, to degrade, to drop, to fail, to fall down), くらい�'く� す (to degrade, to lower in rank). (various references)

Korean		타락하십시�". (various references)

Manx		leodaghey (decrease, depreciate, detract, diminish, diminution; detractor; cheap, diminution; detractor; cheap morally, dislike, disparage, disparagement, disrespect, drop, dull; reduction, impair, impairment, mitigate, mitigation, offset, reduce, remission, subtract, undervalue), injillaghey (change down, cheap, cheap morally, condescend, cut, cut down, debase, defer, degradation, demote, demotion, depreciate, depreciation, depress, depression, die down, humiliate, humiliation, level down, reduce, reduction, relegate, sink, step down, subdue, subject, submit, subordinate, subordination, turn down, vulgarization, vulgarize). (various references)

Norwegian		degradere, fornedre. (various references)

Papiamen		degradá. (various references)

Pig Latin		egradeday

Portuguese		rebaixar (abase, banalize, belittle, bemean, bust, crab, debase, decry, demean, demote, denigrate, depreciate, diminish, disparagement, flank, humble, humiliated, lower, mark down, put down, skiver, undercut, vilipend, vulgarize), degradar (abase, attaint, bastardize, break, demote, diminish, put down). (various references)

Romanian		dezonora (attaint, blot, bring reproach upon, disgrace, dishonor, dishonour, foul, pollute, ruin, spot), dezintegra (disincorporate, disintegrate, dissolve, resolve, split), deprava (debauch, demoralize, deprave), degrada (abase, bastardize, break, come down, debase, depreciate, dilapidate, gradate, grade, pervert, reduce to the ranks, waste), degenera (degenerate, depauperate, deteriorate, dewindle, rot), retrograda (abase, demote, reduce, relegate), înjosi (abase, debase, humble, humiliate, mortify, stoop). (various references)

Russian		унижать (abase, demean, depreciate, humiliate, lower, mortify), разжаловать (lower, relegate), разжалобить, понижать (abase, demote, drop, lower, reduce), деградировать. (various references)

Scottish		maslaich (affront, reproach). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		degradirati, poniziti (abase, debase, demean, downgrade, humble, humiliate, mortify). (various references)

Spanish		deterioro (attack, corrosion, damage, degradation, destruction, deterioration, deteriorative, disfigurement, disrepair, spoilage, wear, wear and tear), denudación (degradation, denudation), degradarse (abase oneself, demean), degradar (abase, bastardize, break, cashier, corrode, corrupt, debase, demean, demote, demount, down grade, mortify, put down, shade off), degradación (abasement, breakdown, debasement, decomposition, degeneracy, degradation, demean, demotion, denudation, deterioration, impairment, reduction, shading, solodisation, solodization, solotization, surface deterioration, thin-down), defecto (batter, blemish, damage, default, defect, deficiency, failing, fault, flaw, hole, imperfection, inferiority, shortcoming), envilecer (debase), aplebeyar. (various references)

Swedish		förnedra (abase, debase, humble, humiliate), degradera (bust, demote, downgrade). (various references)

Turkish		düşmek (behoove, behove, collapse, come down, come down in the world, crash, crumble, crumple, crumple up, decline, decrease, deduct, dive, droop, drop, drop down, drop off, ebb, end up, fall, fall among, fall down, fall from, fall in a heap, fall off, fall on, fall on evil days, fall over, go down, land, lapse, pitch, plonk, plunge, plunk, recede, rest with, sag, scale down, sink, sink into, step down, subside into, take a toss, tumble, tumble down), rengini açmak (blanch, bleach, decolor, decolorize, decolour, decolourize, lighten), rütbesini indirmek (demote, deprive, disrate), onurunu kırmak (insult), küçük düşürmek (abase, affront, bring into contempt, debase, depreciate, detract, disparage, give affront to, give smb. the wall, humiliate, lessen, lower, make smb. feel small, run down, score smb. off, snub, stigmatize, stultify, take smb. down a peg), indirmek (bash, bring down, cast down, clip, clout, clump, cut, dismount, down, draw down, drop off, dump, land, lay low, let down, lift down, lower, plant, put down, reduce, relegate, send down, set down, strike, take down, take from, take off, unlade), indirgemek (reduce), gerilemek (deteriorate, draw back, drop back, drop behind, drop off, fall back, lose ground, recede, redound, regress, remount, retreat, retrograde, slip, stand back, turn back, worsen), aşınmaya uğramak. (various references)

Ukranian		знижувати (abate, bring down, невимушенІсть [f], depress, discount, lower, put down, reduce, send down, take from), занепадати (decay, decline, eclipse, fall off), псувати (alloy, bedevil, blemish, blight, blur, break, corrupt, cripple, debase, deface, deform, deprave, destroy, deteriorate, discount, disfigure, do for, envenom, erode, flaw, make miserable, mess, mismanage, muddle, muff, perish, prejudice, punish, queer, spoil, vitiate, waste), погіршуватися (break down, degenerate, disimprove, dwindle, slacken), погіршувати (adulterate, aggravate, deprave, deteriorate, disimprove, impair, worsen, worst), деградувати. (various references)

Welsh		diraddio, iselhau (abase, lower). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	polluam, polluamini, polluamus, polluant, polluantur, polluat, polluatis, polluatur, polluent, polluentur, polluerat, polluere, polluerent, pollueretur, polluerint, polluerit, pollueritis, polluerunt, pollues, polluet, polluetur, pollui, polluimini, polluimus, polluisti, polluistis, polluit, polluitur, polluta, pollutae, polluti, pollutio, pollutione, pollutum, pollutus, pollutusque. (various references)
Old French	900-1400	desparagier. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "degrade": degraded, degradedly, degrader, degraders, degrades. (additional references)
	Words ending with "degrade": biodegrade. (additional references)
	Words containing "degrade": biodegraded, biodegrades. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Degrade" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dagarti, Daurade, degate, degrace, degrad, degrate, degred, Dehradun, Dengra, Djerdap, dorade, emrawde. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "degrade" (pronounced digrā"d)
4	-g r ā" d	grade, upgrade.
3	-r ā" d	afraid, betrayed, braid, frayed, portrayed, prayed, preyed, raid, rayed, sprayed, strayed, tirade, trade, unafraid, upbraid.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-d-d-e-e-g-r"
	-1 letter: agreed, deader, dragee, dredge, gadder, geared, graded.
	-2 letters: adder, agree, dared, dread, dreed, eager, eagre, eared, edged, edger, grade, greed, raged, ragee, readd, reded.
	-3 letters: aged, agee, ager, dare, dead, dear, deed, deer, dere, drag, dree, dreg, edge, egad, eger, gaed, gear, geed, grad, gree, rage, read, redd, rede, reed.
	-4 letters: add, age, are, dad, dag, dee, ear, era, ere, erg, gad, gae, gar, ged, gee, rad, rag, red, ree, reg.
	-5 letters: ad, ae, ag, ar, de, ed, er, re.
	Words containing the letters "a-d-d-e-e-g-r"
	+1 letter: badgered, daggered, dangered, degraded, degrader, degrades, deranged, dogeared, gandered, gardened, hardedge, regarded, regraded.
	+2 letters: degraders, degreased, deraigned, derogated, desugared, disagreed, glandered, hardedges, redamaged, redargued, renegaded.
	+3 letters: bedraggled, biodegrade, bridgehead, degradable, degradedly, denigrated, endangered, overgoaded.
	+4 letters: biodegraded, biodegrades, bridgeheads, deflagrated, degenerated, degradative, depredating, deprogramed, deregulated, disregarded, engarlanded, godfathered, griddlecake, guardedness, intergraded, lifeguarded, redemanding, retrograded, safeguarded, wrongheaded.
	+5 letters: deglamorized, degringolade, deprogrammed, desegregated, desiderating, featheredged, griddlecakes, hydrogenated, readdressing, rededicating, undercharged.
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.