Debase

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To lower in character, quality, or value; to degrade. transitive

    "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."

  2. 2
    corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance; often by replacing valuable ingredients with inferior ones wordnet
  3. 3
    To lower in position or rank. archaic, transitive
  4. 4
    lower in value by increasing the base-metal content wordnet
  5. 5
    To lower the value of (a currency) by reducing the amount of valuable metal in the coins. transitive
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  1. 6
    corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
adulteratedebauchabaseadulteratealloycorrupt

Example

More examples

"You will debase yourself with such behavior."

Etymology

From de- + base, from Old French bas, from Latin bassus. Cognate with Spanish debajo (“under, beneath, below”). Compare abase.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.