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 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 Life is debauched and consistent, until that handsome twentysomething gent wanders into Lee’s favorite watering hole. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Nov. 2024 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 That doesn’t seem especially forbidden or debauched. Chris Klimek, Vulture, 17 July 2024 Instead, Mixtape Pluto is subterranean and nocturnal, hedonistic one minute and aching with regrets the next, debauched but wounded. Christopher R. Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for debauch
Verb
  • Customer service was once rated among the highest in the American Customer Satisfaction Index – until relentless budget cuts started to degrade it.
    Teresa Ghilarducci, Forbes.com, 7 July 2025
  • In 1984, Francis Crick described a biological conundrum: Memories last years, while most molecules degrade in days or weeks.
    Ajdina Halilovic, Wired News, 6 July 2025
Verb
  • Some have been corrupted by money and power, betraying each other as readily as the criminals do.
    Joan MacDonald, Forbes.com, 9 July 2025
  • Parliament has been corrupted by agents of a genocidal foreign power.
    Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 7 July 2025
Verb
  • Prior to foreign hunters visiting Uruguay and providing a financial incentive to keep the birds’ populations healthy, ducks were often poisoned en masse because they were seen as little more than crop raiders.
    Chris Dorsey, Forbes.com, 30 June 2025
  • Has sports gambling poisoned the relationship between athletes and fans?
    Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald, 27 June 2025
Verb
  • Read More: The Battle for Our Memory Is the Battle for Our Country But debasing our history through censorship and ideological cherry-picking insults the memory of the nine saints who were murdered at Mother Emanuel, desecrating its sacred space all over again.
    Kevin Sack, Time, 3 June 2025
  • An office that demands wisdom and restraint is now debased with churlish impulsivity, rambling incoherency and overt grift.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 May 2025
Verb
  • Then two of his classmates did something magical. 'And I was humiliated again' The story Griffin started to tell began in first grade just after his family moved from one part of his suburban New York town to another, and Griffin was the new kid in school.
    Brad Schmitt, The Tennessean, 2 July 2025
  • Why risk thousands of dollars to be humiliated and possibly denied entry?
    MSNBC Newsweek, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 June 2025
Verb
  • Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 86 years-old and his political power is weakened following the short war with Israel.
    Jackie Northam, NPR, 9 July 2025
  • The June jobs report showed strong headline numbers, but the underlying data pointed to a weakening labor market.
    Danny Bakst, Fortune, 9 July 2025
Verb
  • Andrew faces charges of obstructing a coroner in the execution of his or her duty, as well as doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice.
    Gabrielle Rockson, People.com, 21 Mar. 2025
  • In his eyes, a Jew who fails to share that outlook becomes the monster of traditional antisemitic lore: something perverted from its essential nature.
    Robert Helfand, Hartford Courant, 21 May 2025
Verb
  • The final scene subverted what was previously known about Dave, a man established to be a passionate investigator and aspiring writer trapped in a complicated relationship.
    Raven Brunner, People.com, 28 June 2025
  • Erotic surrender alone will not subvert or even really trouble the monarchy, which requires its own elaborately binding outfits and public displays of intimacy.
    Helen Shaw, New Yorker, 26 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Debauch.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debauch. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025.

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