(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).
Minimize
Definition:
(v. t.) To reduce to the smallest part or proportion possible; to reduce to a minimum.
Example Sentences:
(1) Although the mean values for all hemodynamic variables between the two placebo periods were minimally changed, the differences in individual patients were striking.
(2) In the absence of atrial dilatation there was minimal stimulus for ANF secretion.
(3) Minimal levels were evident 16 weeks after irradiation; Hct then increased, but remained below preirradiation values.
(4) One hundred and ninety-nine children aged 7-14 and 177 adolescents in remission and minimal manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were examined before and after fangotherapy with allowance for activity of the process, age-related reactivity.
(5) Using serial section electron microscopic reconstructions as a reference, we have chosen as our standard procedure a method that maximizes both the preservation of the cytoskeleton and the proportion of cells staining, while minimizing the degree of nonspecific staining.
(6) The minimal change in gel fiber size caused by slow A release implies that fibrin fiber size is primarily a function of ionic environment and not of the sequence of peptide release.
(7) Methods to minimize bias in the design and implementation of consultation-liaison research are suggested.
(8) The plasma levels of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) were measured both during relapse and remission in 8 patients with idiopathic, minimal-lesion nephrotic syndrome.
(9) Limitations include the facts that the tracer inventory requires a minimal survival period, can only be done postmortem, and has low resolution for cuts of the vagal hepatic branch.
(10) In the last 2 years at our department we have developed a new technique in which the resorption has up to now been minimal.
(11) In this paper the domain of validity of the unlabelled and labelled minimal models of glucose disappearance is studied.
(12) Minimal breast cancer should include lobular carcinoma in situ (lobular neoplasia) and ductal carcinoma in situ regardless of nodal status, and (tentatively) invasive carcinoma smaller than 1 cm in total diameter, if axillary lymph nodes are not involved.
(13) In minimal-glucose-aminoacids at 37 C after an initial growth, cellular lysis occurred.
(14) Essential characteristics of the composite bone cement included a homogeneous and uniform fiber distribution, and a minimal increase in apparent viscosity of the polymerizing cement.
(15) At 10(-7) M, Iso produced approximately maximal responses at all ages in the ECH but elicited only minimal responses at all ages in the ERH, approximately ten times this concentration being required to produce maximal responses in the ERH.
(16) Each axon had a characteristic head position which was maximally excitatory to it, and a diametrically opposed head position which was minimally excitatory.3.
(17) The patient had experienced repeated spontaneous fractures for 1.5 years such as serial rib fractures, fractures of the sternum and most recently fracture of the neck of the femur after a minimal trauma.
(18) Repeated transient ischemic attacks in the same territory with minimal lesions on arteriography and non-homogeneous plaque on duplex scan; 2.
(19) Defects in the posterior one-half of the trachea, up to 5 rings long, were repaired, with minimal stenosis.
(20) A plasmid carrying this mutation, along with wild-type genes encoding the c and b subunits, was unusual in that it failed to complement a chromosomal c-subunit mutation on succinate minimal medium.