deprave

"I don't think you should censor books but there is this strange anomaly - it's common sense that films can deprave and corrupt, and that books can't."

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2012

It has been 14 years since China officially banned console video games, worrying the living-room boxes would dumb down or deprave the brains of Chinese youth.

From Washington Post

On the contrary it would so deprave our currency that it would bring ruin, particularly to the wage earners of the country and those on fixed salaries.

From Time Magazine Archive

The legal definition of obscenity in Great Britain is that which tends "to deprave and corrupt."

From Time Magazine Archive

I know them, yea, And what they weigh even to the utmost scruple; Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys, That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander.

From St. Winifred's, or The World of School by Earnshaw, H. C. (Harold C.)

This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 by Randolph, Thomas Jefferson

As to real gallantry, the French style depraves the minds of men least, ours is most favorable to the peace of families.

From The History of Emily Montague by Brooke, Frances

At the same time the State depraves those who govern.

From Anarchism by Eltzbacher, Paul

It is the masters of slaves, not the slaves, who are deficient in self-rule; and slavery is doubly detestable, because it depraves the masters.

From Phases of Faith Passages from the History of My Creed by Newman, Francis William

Civilisation, in this case, depraves the birds, as often it does men.

From The Truth About Woman by Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)

Neill seemed to savor the chance to go deeper, to look more closely at our innate capacity for acts both moral and depraved.

From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026

He also accused Donaldson of telling lies many times over the years and added, he never imagined the former party leader could have been so "depraved".

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026

Yet its parties, even at their most decadent and depraved, were never quite cool.

From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2026

“I apologize to all who were hurt by this clearly terrible and depraved individual.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026

“My pubescent nemesis. What a promising day this appears to be. I am apparently to be run over by a streetcar and robbed simultaneously, thereby setting a Paradise record. Get away, you depraved urchin.”

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Separated from one another in actual date by 50, perhaps by 100 years,742 they must needs have branched off from a common corrupt ancestor, and straightway become exposed continuously to fresh depraving influences.

From The Revision Revised by Burgon, John William

His own example has had a depraving influence.

From Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 by Kennedy, James

In the resulting degradation the woman has the largest share, since it makes her a pariah and involves her in all the hardening and depraving influences of social ostracism.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Ellis, Havelock

One girl might receive from a book a hundred evil suggestions, hopelessly depraving her imagination, while upon another it might not leave a single evil trace.

From The Library and Society Reprints of Papers and Addresses by Bostwick, Arthur Elmore

Second, treason was made to consist in such vague and infinitely elastic kinds of action as inspiring discouragement, misleading opinion, depraving manners, corrupting patriots, abusing the principles of the Revolution by perfidious applications.

From Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 1 of 3) Essay 1: Robespierre by Morley, John