DEGRADED • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Degraded

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/dɪgrˈeɪdəd/ /dɪgrˈeɪdɪd/ Listen

verb

Degrade v. t. (past & past part. degraded; pres. part. degrading)

1.

To reduce from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to lower in rank; to deprive of office or dignity; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, or a general officer. "Prynne was sentenced by the Star Chamber Court to be degraded from the bar."

2.

To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. "O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!" "Yet time ennobles or degrades each line." "Her pride... struggled hard against this degrading passion."

3.

(Geol.) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.

Synonyms: To abase; demean; lower; reduce. See Abase.

Degrade v. i. (Biol.) To degenerate; to pass from a higher to a lower type of structure; as, a family of plants or animals degrades through this or that genus or group of genera.

adjective

Degraded adj.

1.

Reduced in rank, character, or reputation; debased; sunken; low; base. "The Netherlands... were reduced practically to a very degraded condition."

2.

(Biol.) Having the typical characters or organs in a partially developed condition, or lacking certain parts. "Some families of plants are degraded dicotyledons."

3.

(Her.) Having steps; said of a cross each of whose extremities finishes in steps growing larger as they leave the center; termed also on degrees.

See images of 'Degraded'

Etymology of 'Degraded'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Degraded" Quotes from Famous Books

... altogether ridiculous; and somewhat enraged, I told her who I was. She started, regarded me for a moment with a scrutinizing look, and burst into tears, saying—'It is so, indeed! My punishment is just; I am humbled and degraded before the very menial I despised. Take, me, Simpson; do with me as you will; crime levels all ranks. Yet stay; I am still feeble; delay the consummation of your triumph for one week. During that period I shall regain the strength ...

— Venus in Boston; - A Romance of City Life • George Thompson

... low social type. There may be a just distribution of food among a shipwrecked crew, but the attainment of such justice would not satisfy all their wants. The abolition of misery, the elevation of a degraded class to a higher stage is a good thing in itself, unless it can be shown to involve some counterbalancing evil. I only argue that the ideal society would have this, among other attributes, and, therefore, that to secure such equality is ...

— Social Rights and Duties, Volume I (of 2) - Addresses to Ethical Societies • Sir Leslie Stephen

... Degraded state of the Manyuema. Want of writing materials. Lion's fat a specific against tsetse. The Neggeri. Jottings about Merere. Various sizes of tusks. An epidemic. The strangest disease of all! The New Year. Detention at Bambarre. ...

— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 • David Livingstone

... bad thing arises like a weed in the night and blights the land where freedom is dead; and the aspect of that land and the soul of that people become spectacles of disgust, revolting and terrible, terrible for the high things degraded and the great destinies imperilled. It would be less terrible if an earthquake split the land in two, and sank it into the ocean. To avert the moral plague of slavery men fly to arms, notwithstanding the physical consequence, and those ...

— Principles of Freedom • Terence J. MacSwiney

... walked out of the study a very different being from what I was on entering it. I had gone in with the air of a professor about to deliver a lecture; I came out like a student who had failed in his examination, and been degraded in ...

— The Crayon Papers • Washington Irving

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com