Words / C1

di-GRAYD/dɪˈɡreɪd/

To degrade is to treat someone as less than human, or to damage quality: degrading comments, plastic degrades slowly. Humiliate is a close cousin for people; deteriorate (B2) is “get worse” without the insult. Demote is a job rank. Do not use degrade as a fancy synonym of criticise.

Meaning

To treat someone as less than human, or to damage the quality of something.

Examples

• “The comments degraded the debate into insults.”
• “The search procedure was ruled degrading, not merely inconvenient.”
• “Heat degraded the sample, which is the quality sense, not an insult.”

Good to know

Lower in dignity, or damage quality. People: humiliate (cousin). Job rank: demote. Get worse: deteriorate. Not mere criticism.

Near in meaning

humiliate

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