debased

de·base

(dĭ-bās′)

tr.v. de·based, de·bas·ing, de·bas·es

To lower in character, quality, or value; degrade.

de·base′ment n.

de·bas′er n.

Synonyms: debase, degrade, abase, demean²
These verbs mean to lower in character or quality. Debase implies reduction in quality or value: "debasing the moral currency" (George Eliot).
Degrade implies reduction to a state of shame or disgrace: "If I pitied you for crying ... you should spurn such pity.... Rise, and don't degrade yourself into an abject reptile!" (Emily Brontë).
Abase refers principally to loss of rank or prestige: "Meg pardoned him, and Mrs. March's grave face relaxed ... when she heard him declare that he would ... abase himself like a worm before the injured damsel" (Louisa May Alcott).
Demean suggests lowering in social position: "It puts him where he can make the advances without demeaning himself" (William Dean Howells). See Also Synonyms at corrupt.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

debased

(dɪˈbeɪst)

adj

(Banking & Finance) (of coins) having cheaper metal added

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Adj.	1.	debased - mixed with impurities adulterate, adulterated impure - combined with extraneous elements
	2.	debased - lowered in value; "the dollar is low"; "a debased currency" devalued, degraded low - less than normal in degree or intensity or amount; "low prices"; "the reservoir is low"
	3.	debased - ruined in character or quality corrupted, vitiated corrupt - lacking in integrity; "humanity they knew to be corrupt...from the day of Adam's creation"; "a corrupt and incompetent city government"

debased

adjective

1. corrupt, devalued, reduced, lowered, mixed, contaminated, polluted, depreciated, impure, adulterated a debased form of Buddhism

2. degraded, corrupt, fallen, low, base, abandoned, perverted, vile, sordid, depraved, debauched, scungy (Austral. & N.Z.) Such women were seen as morally debased.
degraded good, moral, pure, decent, innocent, ethical, upright, honourable, virtuous, chaste, incorruptible

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

debased

[dɪˈbeɪst] adj (= inferior) [standards] → dégradé(e)
the debased standards of today's media → le niveau dégradé des médias d'aujourd'hui

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

debased

adj → verderbt; quality, value → minderwertig; word, expression → abgegriffen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

If there is, as we admit, a public sentiment among you, men of honor, justice and humanity, is there not also another kind of public sentiment among the ruffian, the brutal and debased? And cannot the ruffian, the brutal, the debased, by slave law, own just as many slaves as the best and purest?

View in context

He had gone away rejected and mortifieddisappointed in a very sanguine hope, after a series of what appeared to him strong encouragement; and not only losing the right lady, but finding himself debased to the level of a very wrong one.

View in context

The man a debased specimen of one of the most primitive races of the earth, and of an ugliness which was simply devilish; the woman of high degree, beautiful, accomplished.

View in context

Yes, that's the d'Urberville nose and chin--a little debased. Your ancestor was one of the twelve knights who assisted the Lord of Estremavilla in Normandy in his conquest of Glamorganshire.

View in context

But now he had become so debased that he could not even attempt to disguise from himself his yearning to know the secret thoughts of his servants.

View in context

Those books, both prose and verse, are consecrated to me by other associations; and I hate to have them debased and profaned in his mouth!

View in context

I durst make no return to this malicious insinuation, which debased human understanding below the sagacity of a common hound, who has judgment enough to distinguish and follow the cry of the ablest dog in the pack, without being ever mistaken.

View in context

Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion, that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors.

View in context

He had all the cold, hard, cruel, terrible features of the green warriors, but accentuated and debased by the animal passions to which he had given himself over for many years.

View in context

From all this it resulted that the false and selfish called her wise, the vulgar and debased termed her charitable, the insolent and unjust dubbed her amiable, the conscientious and benevolent generally at first accepted as valid her claim to be considered one of themselves; but ere long the plating of pretension wore off, the real material appeared below, and they laid her aside as a deception.

View in context

With him came his horde of renegade Arabs, outlawed marauders, these, and equally degraded blacks, garnered from the more debased and ignorant tribes of savage cannibals through whose countries the raider passed to and fro with perfect impunity.

View in context

"Whatever be thy object: whether revenge or the natural bent of a cruel and degraded mind, I know not; but if any be curst because of the Outlaw of Torn it will be thou--I had almost said, unnatural father; but I do not believe a single drop of thy debased blood flows in the veins of him thou callest son."