debauch

Synonym Chooser

How is the word debauch different from other verbs like it?

Some common synonyms of debauch are corrupt, debase, deprave, pervert, and vitiate. While all these words mean "to cause deterioration or lowering in quality or character," debauch implies a debasing through sensual indulgence.

the long stay on a tropical isle had debauched the ship's crew

When would corrupt be a good substitute for debauch?

While the synonyms corrupt and debauch are close in meaning, corrupt implies loss of soundness, purity, or integrity.

the belief that bureaucratese corrupts the language

Where would debase be a reasonable alternative to debauch?

The synonyms debase and debauch are sometimes interchangeable, but debase implies a loss of position, worth, value, or dignity.

commercialism has debased the holiday

When could deprave be used to replace debauch?

Although the words deprave and debauch have much in common, deprave implies moral deterioration by evil thoughts or influences.

the claim that society is depraved by pornography

When is pervert a more appropriate choice than debauch?

While in some cases nearly identical to debauch, pervert implies a twisting or distorting from what is natural or normal.

perverted the original goals of the institute

When might vitiate be a better fit than debauch?

The words vitiate and debauch are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, vitiate implies a destruction of purity, validity, or effectiveness by allowing entrance of a fault or defect.

a foreign policy vitiated by partisanship

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 debauch The dark comedy follows a wealthy socialite, Stacy (Cherry), and a struggling writer, Becky (Chalotra), who are brought together at a lavish, debauched New York party. Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 14 Aug. 2025 The atmosphere, at once debauched and sombre, felt like a wake, one attendee said. Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2025 But as commercialization took hold, the event metastasized into a pit of hard drugs, drunkenness, and debauch a world apart from its bohemian origins. Charlie Campbell, TIME, 17 Mar. 2025 In season two, when Mike White’s series decamped to Sicily, the credits riffed on Italian frescoes that got increasingly debauched — with a beat drop from opera to EDM. Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2025 Life is debauched and consistent, until that handsome twentysomething gent wanders into Lee’s favorite watering hole. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Nov. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for debauch
Verb
  • But warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, disease and human activity, such as pollution, have severely degraded Florida's reefs, according to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
    Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 1 Oct. 2025
  • The team’s goal is to track and predict how asphalt roads degrade.
    Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 1 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Tales From Beyond the Pale co-creator Glenn McQuaid unleashes a Jason Voorhees whose appearance is concealed not by a hockey mask but a squiggly blur of video noise, corrupting the handheld footage of him stalking college kids through the woods.
    A.A. Dowd, Vulture, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Democrats and civil libertarians said Trump corrupted the system of justice by getting involved.
    Bart Jansen, USA Today, 26 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • This creates unavoidable and intolerable conflicts of interest that poison the competitive dynamics that healthy markets require.
    Asad Ramzanali, Time, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Hogan initially denied poisoning her estranged husband, according to police, but later changed her story.
    Mike Stunson, Miami Herald, 6 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Freddy Krueger debases the suburban American ideal through the dreams of teenagers in Nightmare on Elm Street.
    Rachel Raposas, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2025
  • Only the first is still fashionable, and the last has been so debased, misused, and weaponized over the centuries as to be almost unspeakable in polite company.
    Zadie Smith, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Lord Lovat is utterly humiliated and this turns out to be a major problem for Brian.
    Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 26 Sep. 2025
  • There’s always a moment in which somebody humiliates the villain and now all the love in him is gone.
    Daniel D'Addario, Variety, 24 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • For investors, even opposition threats of repeal weaken confidence by raising doubts about long-term policy stability.
    Felicia Jackson, Forbes.com, 3 Oct. 2025
  • While his core supporters remain loyal, sustained disapproval among the broader public could weaken his leverage in negotiations with Congress and erode confidence in his leadership.
    Robert Birsel, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The real fiends were the ones who perverted science, who attacked this misunderstood giant out of fear, who branded him as something unholy and unworthy to exist, who gave him life but didn’t give him love.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Aware of this injustice, companies are hiring lawyers and influence peddlers to bolster their MAGA credentials and pervert traditional law enforcement.
    Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • The show also subverted what the traditional mother-daughter relationship, and the role of a mother in general, can look like in the modern world.
    Anna Tingley, Variety, 3 Oct. 2025
  • The film examines how boundaries are inscribed and looks to plants as models for subverting systems of control.
    Matt Grobar, Deadline, 30 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Debauch.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debauch. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

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