Meaning

6 senses

  1. (transitive)To debase; to lower; to degrade.

    herabwürdigen, entwürdigen, erniedrigen

  2. (transitive)To humble; to humiliate.

  3. (transitive)To mortify.

  4. (transitive)To subtract the mean from (a value, or every observation in a data set).

  5. (obsolete, transitive)To manage; to conduct; to treat.

    kleinmachen, demütigen, erniedrigen

  6. (archaic, transitive)To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.

    benehmen, verhalten, führen

More definitions
  • reduce in worth or character, usually verbally

Examples

12 sentences

  1. I didn't mean to demean you.

    CM · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. You don't have to be so demeaning.

    Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Billy uses his language skills to demean and humiliate those who are learning English.

    Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. It really feels demeaning.

    CM · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. He was demeaning himself.

    Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

3 languages
Deutsch
By meaning 5
to debase:
to humble, humble oneself; to humiliate:
to mortify:
to manage; to conduct; to treat:
to conduct; to behave; to comport:

Origin

(1595) From de- + mean (“lowly, base, common”), from Middle English mene, aphetic variatio

(1595) From de- + mean (“lowly, base, common”), from Middle English mene, aphetic variation of imene (“mean, base, common”), from Old English ġemǣne (“mean, common”). Compare English bemean.

From Middle English demenen, demeinen, from Anglo-Norman demener, from Old French demener, from de- + mener (“to conduct, lead”), from Latin mināre, from minārī (“to threaten”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

demeans, demeaning, demeaned, demeaned
Base formdemean · to demean
3rd person singulardemeans
Present participledemeaning
Past simpledemeaned
Past participledemeaned

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theydemean
he, she, itdemeans

Past simpleLesson

all personsdemeaned

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave demeaned
he, she, ithas demeaned

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill demean

Synonyms

39 synonyms
discreditB2humiliateB2embarrassB1mortifyB2confuseA2degradeC1humbleC1lowerB2shameB1disgraceB2disparageC2reduceB1relegateC2sinkB1
Close in meaning

Antonyms

2 antonyms
aggrandizeglorifyB2

Word family

3 related words
Relatedabash
Deriveddemeanermisdemean

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
demagoguerydemandB1demarcationdemeanordemeanourdement

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

demean — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto