(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).
Disparage
Definition:
(v. t.) To match unequally; to degrade or dishonor by an unequal marriage.
(v. t.) To dishonor by a comparison with what is inferior; to lower in rank or estimation by actions or words; to speak slightingly of; to depreciate; to undervalue.
(n.) Inequality in marriage; marriage with an inferior.
Example Sentences:
(1) (“The Dynasty of Bush” sounds like a terribly disparaging term for Linda Evans, Kate O’Mara and Joan Collins .
(2) US diplomats disparaged New Zealand's reaction to a suspected Israeli spy ring as a "flap" and accused New Zealand's government of grandstanding in order to sell more lamb to Arab countries, according to leaked cables.
(3) For the man who created the " specialist in failure " aphorism to disparage a fellow manager, it is obvious how much that would hurt.
(4) I’m hoping that he will actually raise the level of discussion,” Sullivan said, “and that he won’t just disparage everything with a tweet.
(5) There had been suggestions that Cameron had been caught off camera earlier on Saturday making disparaging remarks about Terry to Obama.
(6) On the left is the favourite, Spanish-born Hidalgo, 54, protégée of current mayor Bertrand Delanoë and disparagingly referred to as la dauphine (the heiress).
(7) • The Wall Street Journal uncovers communications between Sony and Marvel discussing a Spider-Man crossover and speaking disparagingly about Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield.
(8) The Republican move appears to be intended in part to highlight Republican disparagement of Barack Obama as the "food stamp president" because record numbers of Americans now claim the benefit, doubling the cost of the programme since 2008 to $80bn a year.
(9) Roginsky said in the suit that she was punished for not disparaging the former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson after she filed a sexual harassment suit against Ailes.
(10) The main finding of this study consists of an interaction between the personality factor anxiety and the feedback variable: High-anxiety subjects prefer test-disparaging information significantly more in the negative feedback condition than in the positive feedback condition, whereas low-anxiety subjects show no difference in preference for test-related information as a function of the feedback condition.
(11) However, one of the channel's British reporters, Sara Firth, appeared to go off message with a series of disparaging tweets in which she said the channel's reporters were engaged in lies.
(12) Axelrod admitted that Democratic supporters would have been disappointed that Obama had not raised strong issues such as the Republican position on women's rights, or the secret video showing Romney disparaging 47% of voters as freeloaders or his record as chief executive of the investment fund Bain Capital.
(13) Rather than honoring their sacrifice and recognizing their pain, Mr Trump disparaged the religion of the family of an American hero,” Collins wrote.
(14) Unfortunately, such methods are often inappropriately disparaged or ignored by epidemiologists.
(15) In addition, the voices of schizophrenic patients are predominantly disparaging, call approbrious names, or are accusatory.
(16) Critics were quick to disparage Obama's achievement as a meaningless compromise.
(17) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Abbott disparaged the fund at the time, comparing it to a domestic fund championed by the former Greens leader Bob Brown , which he wants to abolish.
(18) And despite my disparaging remarks about quite what did Tony achieve from his premiership the fact is if I had to choose between the Blairites and the Brownites I would choose the Blairites."
(19) The Labour leader said he would never disparage David Cameron in the same way, even though he believes the prime minister's policies are "profoundly misguided".
(20) More than 20% of the children--equal proportions of girls and boys--had self-perceptions that seriously underestimated their actual high abilities, and displayed a corresponding pattern of disparaging self- and other-achievement attitudes.