belittles

verbdetract

Antonyms for belittles

Word Origin & History

1781, "to make small," from be- + little (v.); first recorded in writings of Thomas Jefferson (and probably coined by him), who was roundly execrated for it in England:

Jefferson used it to characterize Buffon's view that American life was stunted by nature, which he was refuting. The figurative sense of "depreciate, scorn as worthless" (as the reviewers did to this word) is from 1797. Related: Belittled; belittling.

Example Sentences for belittles

Some one has said that in the contemplation of death there is something that belittles.

Moreover, it is a metaphor which belittles, instead of dignifying.

It is said that the Roman belittles things, that he is an easy despiser.

He belittles everything that goes on in the world outside his bean-field.

No other honest work in the country so belittles a woman socially as housework performed for money.

He often defies all our sense of fitness and proportion by the degree in which he magnifies the little and belittles the big.

To give this power human lineaments and attributes, as our fathers did, only limits and belittles it.

It belittles by inverting the relative importance of things, thus dwarfing the thoughts and aspirations of a people.

Is not this simply proof of the fact that ignorance cheapens and belittles that which wisdom views with awe and admiration?

Washington was no prodigy, and it belittles both him and Lincoln to be rated as miracles.

belittles

Synonyms for belittles

Antonyms for belittles