Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

debase

[dih-beys] / dɪˈbeɪs /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Japan is not choosing to debase the yen.

From MarketWatch Jul. 28, 2026

His motives are obvious: He’s a bully and it’s fun for him to watch people debase themselves to please him.

From Salon Apr. 3, 2026

These stories tell us that Diogenes was chased out of his native Sinope, on the north coast of what’s now Turkey, for his supposed role in a scheme to debase the city’s currency.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 17, 2025

“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Trump said, then he proceeded to debase a journalist who wasn’t there to report on the event because he’d been silenced, forever.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 20, 2025

Just because the world was unjust didn’t mean that I must debase myself as well.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

In order to emerge victorious in his quest to bring the World Cup to Mexico, De la Torre debases himself and backstabs shamelessly.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 4, 2026

He added that such vocabulary "debases America itself".

From BBC Feb. 22, 2024

And that vision, that fight, in the midst of everything that degrades and debases you, you pull upon community, you pull upon cultural power, you pull upon your spirituality, and you pull upon hope.

From Slate Oct. 6, 2020

Said corporation's very wealthy owner insults the court and her client, then debases Julius himself after the judge has the man jailed for contempt, which he is well within his rights to do.

From Salon May 14, 2020

It is so simple a fact and one that is so hard, apparently, to grasp: Whoever debases others is debasing himself.

From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

Whereas the European gothic, he concludes, was “an enlightened attack on a debased ruling class or entrenched superstition,” its American version emerged as “a Calvinist exposé of natural human corruption.”

From The Wall Street Journal May 22, 2026

The very concepts of intellectualism, and of objective knowledge itself, have been debased by a kind of Gresham’s Law, with the bad driving out the good.

From Salon Apr. 19, 2026

Yet she knows the history that reduced her to such a debased state.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 15, 2025

There will be a new ball this season, the Nike Flight, which is "built with Aerowsculpt technology with grooves debased into the casing, to allow air to travel seamlessly around the ball, delivering truer flight".

From BBC Aug. 15, 2024

The remarks grew ever more debased and treacherous so that Mr Charles - at least so he claimed - was obliged to intervene with the suggestion that such talk was bad form.

From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Robbie’s most deliciously debasing scene is when she throws coins on the ground for a desperate beggar — and then that person forces her to watch as he picks them up.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 11, 2026

The Constitution’s framers wanted to prevent the President from abusing monetary power and debasing the currency as English monarchs had done.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 20, 2026

Dismissing the case, Mr Justice Chamberlain said Yaxley-Lennon's own barrister had accepted there was no evidence his client had been segregated "for the purpose of breaking his resistance or humiliating or debasing him".

From BBC Mar. 21, 2025

How debasing it feels to beg for that macaroni noodle.

From Washington Post Sep. 1, 2022

It is so simple a fact and one that is so hard, apparently, to grasp: Whoever debases others is debasing himself.

From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin




Vocabulary lists containing debase


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training