Verb
debase (third-person singular simple present debases, present participle debasing, simple past and past participle debased)
- (transitive) To lower in character, quality, or value; to degrade.
1961 May 9, Newton N. Minow, Television and the Public Interest:And just as history will decide whether the leaders of today's world employed the atom to destroy the world or rebuild it for mankind's benefit, so will history decide whether today's broadcasters employed their powerful voice to enrich the people or to debase them.
- (transitive, archaic) To lower in position or rank.[1]
- (transitive) To lower the value of (a currency) by reducing the amount of valuable metal in the coins.
Derived terms
Terms derived from debase
Translations
lower in character, etc
- Armenian: ստորացնել (hy) (storacʻnel)
- Azerbaijani: alçaltmaq
- Bulgarian: понижавам (bg) (ponižavam), унижавам (bg) (unižavam)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 貶低/贬低 (zh) (biǎndī)
- Czech: znehodnotit (cs) pf, ponížit pf
- Esperanto: malaltigi (eo)
- Finnish: huonontaa (fi), heikentää (fi)
- French: abâtardir (fr)
- German: erniedrigen (de), entwürdigen (de), herabsetzen (de), mindern (de), verschlechtern (de), abwerten (de), verderben (de), herabwürdigen (de)
- Greek: υποβαθμίζω (el) (ypovathmízo), υποτιμώ (el) (ypotimó), εξευτελίζω (el) (exeftelízo)
- Hungarian: lealacsonyít (hu), lekicsinyel (hu), lefitymál (hu), fitymál (hu)
- Irish: truailligh
- Italian: avvilire (it)
- Japanese: 変造する (へんぞうする, henzou suru)
- Maori: whakatautauhea, whakatautauwhea
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: nedverdige
- Ottoman Turkish: بوزمق (bozmak)
- Portuguese: rebaixar (pt)
- Romagnol: adulterêr
- Romanian: degrada (ro)
- Russian: унижать (ru) (unižatʹ)
- Spanish: envilecer (es), degradar (es)
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Translations to be checked
References
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.