Pronunciation
- (noun) IPA(key): /ˈdaʊnˌɡɹeɪd/
- (verb) IPA(key): /ˌdaʊnˈɡɹeɪd/
- Rhymes: (verb) -eɪd
- Hyphenation: down‧grade
Noun
downgrade (plural downgrades)
- A reduction of a rating, as a financial or credit rating.
- A downhill gradient on a road or railway.
1960 April, “English Electric diesels for the Sudan Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 218:[...] dynamic braking is fitted to the 99-ton, 55 ft.-long locomotives to help control these otherwise vacuum-braked trains on the long, continuous downgrades encountered on the coastal route.
- A reduction in quality; a descent towards an inferior state.
- Coordinate term: comedown
Verb
downgrade (third-person singular simple present downgrades, present participle downgrading, simple past and past participle downgraded)
- To place lower in position.
The stock was downgraded from ‘buy’ to ‘sell’.
- To reduce in complexity, or remove unnecessary parts; to dumb down.
2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 6 August 2020:More significantly, rigid deference to [Justin] Bieber’s still-young core fan base keeps things resolutely PG, with any acknowledgement of sex either couched in vague “touch your body” workarounds or downgraded to desirous hand-holding and eye-gazing.
- (transitive) To disparage.
1978 April 29, Cindy Rizzo, “Unity of Divergence”, in Gay Community News, page 4:We cannot afford to downgrade the lifestyles of other lesbians; we cannot afford to portray lesbians thinly as drunken and bothersome separatists who push their views on "work-within-the-movement" dykes".
1981, King Royer, Construction Manager in the 80's, page 278:Without downgrading my friends in the Building Trades, driving a nail or sawing a board is relatively simple.
- (meteorology) to reduce the official estimate of a storm's intensity.
- (computing) To revert software back to an older version.
Translations
To place lower in position