(v. t.) To make little or less in a moral sense; to speak of in a depreciatory or contemptuous way.
Example Sentences:
(1) Harping on endlessly about a woman’s hair, legs and handbag instead of her ideas and achievements can be horribly belittling, a way of refusing to take her seriously as a professional.
(2) This is a dangerous moment for politics in Britain: it is not the moment to ignore or belittle the angry cry from voters telling us they are deeply sick of politics as usual.
(3) The more they feel insulted and belittled, the stronger their support for Corbyn.
(4) Comment is perfectly legitimate, but the sneering, supercilious, specious and dismissive contributions masquerading as ‘commentary’ belittle the claims of a ‘quality’ paper.” Before attempting to assess the validity of the reader’s analysis – broadly shared by some other readers – I think his email reflects one or two other interesting aspects of the demographics of the Guardian’s readership and the left.
(5) It happens within a society where we repeatedly hear victims dismissed, belittled and disbelieved at best, or, at worst,blamed for their own assaults.
(6) Perhaps Gove should attend some history lessons taught by the professionals he so belittles so that he can learn how to read and cite sources properly.
(7) That is not to belittle HIV – it is a life-changing condition, and some of the treatments have their side-effects – but, as HIV expert Prof Jonathan Weber put it to me, the treatment regimens developed in the mid-1990s are “so successful it’s like a miracle”.
(8) They had a candidate with pro-Putin, pro-Russian views who belittled Nato, who was willing to potentially remove sanctions on Russia and by contrast they had in Secretary Clinton a candidate very tough on Russia.
(9) Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: "I regret the Australian PM statement belittling the phone-tapping in Indonesia without feeling guilty.
(10) The eccentric, gonzo-ish path that Vice has chosen to pursue instead has itself come in for sharp criticism from detractors among those he belittles as football-chasers.
(11) Modotti, Ollin and, to a lesser degree, Novo (who was ultimately a man and therefore less irritating to those in power), were cast aside and belittled by those who had it in their power to do so.
(12) He reacted angrily to a question about his father’s comments to the Guardian, claiming words were put in his mouth and accusing the media of trying to belittle the closure.
(13) The last Labour government sometimes appeared to belittle the concerns of those who were fearful of the pace of change, or longed for stability or order."
(14) It is acceptable to criticise and belittle Islam because it is a religion, not an ethnic grouping – and therefore fair game.
(15) "People belittled me, implying that it was my fault and that I shouldn't be an independent woman," she added.
(16) In 2010 Lula came under fire after belittling the plight of political prisoners on hunger strike in Cuba. "
(17) What strikes me, as it must have done him, is the way in which the intention behind the article – to belittle the food bank initiative – was turned on its head by the social media backlash.
(18) With no intention of belittling the importance of chronic ischemic heart disease (CIHD) in modern cardiology, the article focuses the attention on primary alcoholic heart disease--alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACMP)--which arouses a far from causal interest due to the prevalence of alcoholism.
(19) In treating Plath as simply an object of sympathy, I suspect I have belittled her.
(20) Demirtas has been the target of fierce campaign attacks by Erdogan, who belittled him a “pretty boy” who is merely a front for the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Degrade
Definition:
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.
(v. i.) 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.
Example Sentences:
(1) This bone could not be degraded by human monocytes in vitro as well as control bone (only 54% of control; P less than 0.003).
(2) Lp(a) also complexes to plasmin-fibrinogen digests, and binding increases in proportion to the time of plasmin-induced fibrinogen degradation.
(3) The rate of accumulation of degraded LDL products was lower in collagen gel cultures, but the final levels achieved were the same in the two substrata.
(4) At the highest dose of chloroquine tested (500 microM), a slightly greater increase in insulin binding and a decrease in insulin degradation were observed in fetal cells as compared with adult cells.
(5) Addition of extracellular mevalonate led to a concentration-dependent fall in both processes, although a higher concentration was required to produce the same effect on LDL degradation as on HMG-CoA reductase activity.
(6) Radioiodinated a-factor was used to identify the a-factor-degrading activity, which is cell associated, endoproteolytic, and not required for response to pheromone.
(7) Densitometric analysis of myofibrillar proteins separated with sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicated that troponin I and troponin T were degraded during 60 minutes of CGI.
(8) In addition, we found apyrase activity (which degrades ATP and ADP to AMP and orthophosphate) and an anticoagulant.
(9) Degradation of both viral and host DNA with micrococcal nuclease and spleen phosphodiesterase indicated that CdG was incorporated primarily into internal positions in both DNAs.
(10) In vitro studies showed that BOF-A2 was rapidly degraded to EM-FU and CNDP in homogenates of the liver and small intestine of mice and rats, and in sera of mice, rats and human, and the conversion of EM-FU to 5-FU occurred only in the microsomal fraction of rat liver in the presence of NADPH.
(11) Only PPACK completely inhibited changes in fibrin degradation products, plasminogen and alpha 2-antiplasmin.
(12) On the other hand, if we correct for the population of HMM with degraded light chain 2, the difference in the binding constants in the presence and absence of Ca2+ may be as great as 5-fold.
(13) When cultures were pulse labeled for 15 min and then incubated under chase conditions for 105 min, the amount of degraded collagen attained a value equal to approximately 20% of the amount synthesized during the labeling period; the data were fit with a simple exponential function that had a 40-min rise time and a 12-min lag time.
(14) The mode of ribosome degradation under this condition is discussed in terms of differential appearance of these intermediate particles.
(15) Degraded visual acuity had a significant effect on cadence, foot placement, and foot clearance, but visual surround conditions did not.
(16) The resistance of GSA 65 to proteolytic degradation, together with previous immunofluorescence data that indicate the antigen is an integral part of the G. lamblia cyst wall, suggests that this molecule may play a role in maintaining the integrity of the cyst in vivo.
(17) 5% of the degradation resulted from enzymatic activity in the culture medium, presumably due to secretion of proteolytic enzymes by the cells.
(18) At 37 degrees C, 125I-labeled TNF-alpha was rapidly internalized and degraded in L-929, U-937 and LAK cells.
(19) Recovery after EEDQ administration showed that both receptor production rate and degradation rate constants of anterior pituitary D2 and striatal D1 receptors were slowed after chronic estradiol treatment, whereas recovery rates for striatal D2 dopamine receptors were unaffected.
(20) The specific rates of degradation of L-arginine-AMC, gly-proline-AMC, N-alpha-benzoyl-L-arginine-AMC and N-[p-toluene-sulphonyl]gly-pro-arginine-AMC were significantly greater in that group, indicating that the composition of their gingival crevicular fluid was different from that of the gingivitis group.