1
as in to degrade
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
was unwilling to abase himself by pleading guilty to a crime that he did not commit
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to humiliate
to reduce to a lower standing in one's own eyes or in others' eyes
I certainly don't abase myself when I do good, honest manual labor
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of abase
Turturro was attracted to the novel’s house style: Its manic, sarcastic, abasing observations, largely written in the third person but never far from Sabbath’s perspective, seemed made for the theater.
—
Marc Tracy, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023
Pence has long since perfected the ability to abase himself in public without seeming the least bit ashamed.
—Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2023
Unfortunately, an impulse to abase oneself isn’t resolved by a recognition that human life is a collaboration.
—Caleb Crain, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2021
One by one, internees abase themselves before 60 of their fellow prisoners, repenting of their errors in thinking and their nonprogressive religious practices.
—James E. Person Jr., National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
Marc Tracy, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023
Pence has long since perfected the ability to abase himself in public without seeming the least bit ashamed.
—Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2023
Unfortunately, an impulse to abase oneself isn’t resolved by a recognition that human life is a collaboration.
—Caleb Crain, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2021
One by one, internees abase themselves before 60 of their fellow prisoners, repenting of their errors in thinking and their nonprogressive religious practices.
—James E. Person Jr., National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abase
Verb
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Today’s batteries depend on scarce resources like lithium and cobalt and degrade over time.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
10 Sep. 2025
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These perform well at low to medium heat, but begin to degrade around 500 °F, potentially releasing harmful fumes that can pose health risks.—
Katie Rosenhouse,
Southern Living,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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And Sacks, a PayPal Mafia member and veteran Silicon Valley investor, is just the sort of titan of industry this town routinely devours and humiliates — from Rex Tillerson to, well, Elon Musk.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
8 Sep. 2025
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And whether the Carolina Panthers are just stuck in an endless loop of embarrassment, one that alternately humiliates and enrages their fans.—
Scott Fowler,
Charlotte Observer,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Unlike bonds, which promise repayment of the primary investment at a future date, warranting demands for higher yields to offset inflation concerns, gold is a physical asset that cannot be debased by fiscal mismanagement or political interference.—
Lee Ying Shan,
CNBC,
4 Sep. 2025
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Mayors debase themselves all the time for corporations!—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
26 Aug. 2025
Verb
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About two hours later, the US Air Force dropped military flares in the sky, with rumors stating this was an attempt to cover up and discredit the UFO incident that occurred earlier in the evening.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
3 Sep. 2025
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Eventually, however, Lowell’s ideas were discredited—Schiaparelli, once an ally, renounced them—and the world moved on.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
29 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Foreign powers such as Russia and China, which challenge America and its allies from Europe to the Middle East to Taiwan and the South China Sea, have long been accused of exploiting such divisions through disinformation campaigns that inflame tensions and weaken confidence in American governance.—
Amir Daftari,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Sep. 2025
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But around the equinoxes, the natural buffer weakens.—
Daisy Dobrijevic,
Space.com,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In pre-trial evidence released last month, Erin's ex-husband Simon also accused Erin of attempting to fatally poison him on multiple occasions, per the BBC.—
Gabrielle Rockson,
PEOPLE,
8 Sep. 2025
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The patients allegedly poisoned were between the ages of 4 and 89, according to Le Monde.—
Becca Longmire,
People.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Even worse, the guidelines gave room for chatbots to demean people by race and spread false medical claims.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
21 Aug. 2025
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Swift has no issue taking shots at the media and fans who use her relationships as a way to demean and excoriate her.—
Maureen Lee Lenker Published,
EW.com,
14 Aug. 2025
Verb
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We are absolutely not corrupted.—
Sarah Larson,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
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Microsoft has found no evidence that a recent Windows 11 update can corrupt a PC’s SSD, despite some user reports flagging the issue.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
29 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Abase.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abase. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.
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