Meaning & use
degrade
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To make something worse in quality, strength or condition, usually gradually.
Grammar: With an object it means damage something: pollution degrades water. Without one, the thing itself declines: the plastic degrades.
Patterns
- degrade something
- something degrades over time
Strong sunlight will degrade the rubber seals within a few years.
Over time the audio quality degrades if the file is copied again and again.
Heavy farming has degraded the soil in the valley.
verbtransitive
To treat someone in a way that takes away their dignity or self-respect.
Grammar: Needs a person or group as the object: the show degrades its guests.
Patterns
- degrade someone
- degrade yourself by doing something
The prisoners were degraded by being forced to work without pay or rest.
She refused to degrade herself by begging for the job.
Jokes that degrade a group of people have no place in the office.
verbtransitive or intransitivechemistry
To break down a substance into simpler chemical parts.
Grammar: In science, bacteria degrade waste, and waste degrades in a landfill.
Patterns
- degrade into something
Enzymes in the gut degrade proteins into smaller units.
Some plastics degrade into tiny fragments rather than disappearing entirely.
Word forms
| third person singular | degrades |
|---|---|
| past tense | degraded |
| past participle | degraded |
| -ing form | degrading |
Common combinations
- degrade the environment
- Mining has degraded the environment around the river.
- degrade quality
- Cheap materials degrade the quality of the finished product.
- degrade rapidly
- Untreated wood degrades rapidly in damp soil.
- degrade human dignity
- Treating workers like machines degrades human dignity.
- degrade into something
- The compound degrades into harmless water and carbon dioxide.
Synonyms and how they differ
- debase
- Debase suggests lowering the value or purity of something, such as a currency or a language, and sounds more formal than degrade.
- demean
- Demean is used almost only for lowering a person's dignity, while degrade also fits materials and environments.
- deteriorate
- Deteriorate never takes an object and just means to get worse, whereas degrade can be done to something by someone.
- humiliate
- Humiliate focuses on making someone feel shame in front of others, a narrower and more intense idea than degrade.
Opposites
Word family
- degradation noun
- the process of getting worse, or humiliating treatment
- degrading adjective
- causing a loss of dignity or respect
- degradable adjective
- able to break down chemically or biologically
- biodegradable adjective
- able to be broken down naturally by living organisms
- undegraded adjective
- not worn down or damaged
Commonly confused: degrade or downgrade?
degrade vs downgrade
Downgrade means to move something to a lower rank or level, such as a hotel room or a forecast, rather than to damage it or humiliate someone.
Practice
The company was criticized for ______ its employees by making them wear embarrassing costumes.
Choose one answer.
Degrading, as the verb in -ing form, takes the object its employees and means treating them without dignity. Upgrading has the opposite sense, and degradation is a noun that cannot take that object.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “degrade”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.