debasing 1 of 3

debasing

2 of 3

noun

debasing

3 of 3

verb

present participle of debase
1
2

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of debasing
Verb
For decades, bartenders have been defaming the Mai Tai, debasing it, making and selling versions of the drink that were childish and incomplex, saccharine and flat. Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 13 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for debasing
Adjective
  • Bosch also emphasized her respect for Thailand and encouraged women not to tolerate degrading treatment.
    Sarah Moreno, Miami Herald, 4 Nov. 2025
  • Charles Rolsky, executive director and senior research scientist at the Shaw Institute, a nonprofit focusing on the links between environmental and human health, says that many studies, including his own, suggest PVA can pass through wastewater treatment without completely degrading.
    Matt Fuchs, Time, 29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Udo Kier is the perverted master of ceremonies in this three-ring circus of deviancy from director Paul Morrissey, which takes Frankenstein’s romantic necrophilia and distills it to its glistening, taboo essence.
    Katie Rife, Vulture, 9 Nov. 2025
  • In a searing rebuttal days before the British socialite was convicted for procuring victims for Epstein’s abuse in December 2021, Comey spoke to the perverted duo’s reasons for targeting teens from disadvantaged backgrounds.
    Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 17 July 2025
Noun
  • Higgins also debunked the debasement trade hypothesis.
    Jason Ma, Fortune, 27 Oct. 2025
  • The immediate goal of this concerted information operation is the debasement of American Jews, but the more politically salient goal is the gaslighting of American evangelical Christians—the very core of the MAGA base, and an overwhelmingly pro-Jewish, pro-Israel constituency at that.
    Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Elites stirred up a now familiar moral panic about commerce corrupting letters and mocked Grub Street even as its writers built the first modern freelance economy and mass-print culture.
    Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 8 Nov. 2025
  • But the church also taught that the power of music could be corrupting.
    Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • This announcement, humiliating the involved member, is harmful.
    Kelly G. Richardson, Oc Register, 29 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • In a post dripping with arrogance, Lynch dished out demeaning nicknames for her recent opponents.
    Andrew Ravens‎, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Oct. 2025
  • But parading around half-naked at competitions felt demeaning.
    Sean Williams, Outside, 27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Schiffl, the provost's spokesperson, says the nuns' social media presence is unbecoming of their order and that their superiors take a dim view of it.
    Esme Nicholson, NPR, 4 Nov. 2025
  • This is unbecoming of the office.
    Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 17 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Lasting under eight minutes, the sketch evokes German uniform worship and the accompanying demand for humiliation as powerfully as the stern psychosocial analysis of the day did.
    David Denby, New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Public humiliation techniques for playful hazing, such as karaoke and talent shows, are used on occasion.
    Noah White, Miami Herald, 10 Nov. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Debasing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debasing. Accessed 20 Nov. 2025.

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