(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).
Deprecate
Definition:
(v. t.) To pray against, as an evil; to seek to avert by prayer; to desire the removal of; to seek deliverance from; to express deep regret for; to disapprove of strongly.
Example Sentences:
(1) "I cannot tell you how I should deprecate anything leading to the publication of these letters," she clucked to her publisher.
(2) Low degrees of role interference is likewise disconcerting to persons but in the absence of an external target for aggression may lead to self deprecation and ultimately suicide.
(3) Despite the sometimes self-deprecating shtick – in sharp contrast to Putin's self-mythologising antics – there remains disquiet about what Navalny really represents, behind the caustic put-downs and cool persona.
(4) Stone’s depiction of himself in his book tallies well with Bilton’s: self-deprecating, a peacemaker, but also someone who gets things done.
(5) Her newspaper profiles over the years are peppered with self-deprecating references to her sporting ruthlessness: her constant mentions of her selfishness and egotism; her win-at-all-costs, only-gold-medals-matter mentality; or the time she flung her helmet at her boyfriend in frustration after losing a race.
(6) This was a galaxy-spanning utopia whose name was chosen for its self-deprecating modesty, rather than something grandiose like the Federation or the Empire.
(7) He reads out deprecating messages: "Loving the show, even the little mistakes," "Sounds like you're on some ITV sitcom in the 80s."
(8) But this was still very much hero worship, northern-style: the 100 or so Werder Bremen fans stood in orderly rows in the Bremen airport arrivals hall in early September, strictly behind the barrier, of course, and many of them carried smiles that were equal parts genuine, childlike excitement and self-deprecating mocking of their own genuine, childlike excitement, a way to cope with the sense of wonderment: are we really here?
(9) Johnson is the master-builder of that image, deflecting every lie, every gaffe, dishonesty and U-turn with some self-deprecating metaphor: calling his feigned indecision “veering all over the place like a shopping trolley” was worth a world of worthy platitudes.
(10) But he uses what he learned from Rantzen: she taught him, he said somewhat self-deprecatingly, the “tricks of trash journalism.
(11) Whether she's pitching her own feminist rap video or reading us her cautionary rewrite of The Ugly Duckling, her self-deprecating anecdotal style invites us to laugh at her middle-class embarrassment while she slips some important truths past.
(12) Like Diana, Prince Philip has tended to be self-deprecating on the subject of his education ("I am one of those ignorant bastards who never went to a university").
(13) The use of AAS as ergogenic drugs must be deprecated because of their marginal effects, the risks of side effects and the unsporting, unethical aspects.
(14) Now the self-deprecating circular is fashionable, and we've had a few this year.
(15) Linked with a self-deprecating acknowledgement that our own fallibility and imperfection is likely to be exposed, we at least introduce a modicum of suspicion to our consumption of dominant media and political narratives.
(16) When the intensity of the noise increased to 70 and 75dB SPL, speech discrimination scores by both devices deprecated together with consistent difference (P less than 0.01).
(17) Cat videos aside, there’s an unspoken war going on – who can be the funniest, who can be the cleverest, who has the most amusingly self-deprecating hangover.
(18) For all the shared self-deprecating glee, nobody really knows what to expect.
(19) Briers, always the most modest and self-deprecating of actors, and the sweetest of men, relished the review, happy to claim a place in the light comedians' gallery of his knighted idols Charles Hawtrey, Gerald du Maurier and Noël Coward.
(20) Polypharmacy is deprecated and either an aminoglycoside or a cephalosporin forms the mainstay of therapy.