degrading
adjective
de·grad·ing
di-ˈgrā-diŋ 
dē-
: causing or associated with a low, destitute, or demoralized state : causing someone to be or feel degraded
a degrading experience
… a work about a young man full of bottled rage looking for a degrading job …—
Penelope Gilliatt
Penelope Gilliatt… any cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of detainees was absolutely forbidden …—David Cole
David Cole
degradingly
di-ˈgrā-diŋ-lē
adverb
dē-
"I hate to be poor, and we are degradingly poor, offensively poor, miserably poor, beastly poor."
—Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
When employees are treated degradingly by their manager, they respond with decreased motivation, commitment, loyalty, and productivity.
—Ken Lloyd
Ken Lloyd
Examples of degrading in a Sentence
made degrading comments about his so-called friend behind his back
Recent Examples on the Web
Some users bragged about allegedly assaulting or blackmailing women and encouraged others to insult the women shown in photos with degrading language.
—Cnn Staff 20 Hr Ago, CNN Money, 24 Aug. 2025
In a degrading battery, the researchers observed two key signs of trouble.
—Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 5 Aug. 2025
The result is an altering of the model weight by a whopping 216, degrading model accuracy from 80 percent to 0.1 percent, said Gururaj Saileshwar, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and co-author of an academic paper demonstrating the attack.
—ArsTechnica, 14 July 2025
Another study in Frontiers in Neuroscience found that even moderate, chronic sleep restriction produces cumulative effects, subtly degrading decision quality and emotional regulation over time.
—Julian Hayes Ii, Forbes.com, 10 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for degrading
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Cnn Staff 20 Hr Ago, CNN Money, 24 Aug. 2025
In a degrading battery, the researchers observed two key signs of trouble.
—Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 5 Aug. 2025
The result is an altering of the model weight by a whopping 216, degrading model accuracy from 80 percent to 0.1 percent, said Gururaj Saileshwar, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and co-author of an academic paper demonstrating the attack.
—ArsTechnica, 14 July 2025
Another study in Frontiers in Neuroscience found that even moderate, chronic sleep restriction produces cumulative effects, subtly degrading decision quality and emotional regulation over time.
—Julian Hayes Ii, Forbes.com, 10 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for degrading
Cite this Entry
“Degrading.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/degrading. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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