DEMEANING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Demeaning

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/dɪmˈinɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Demean v. t. (past & past part. demeaned; pres. part. demeaning)

To manage; to conduct; to treat. "(Our) clergy have with violence demeaned the matter."

To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun. "They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death." "They answered... that they should demean themselves according to their instructions."

To debase; to lower; to degrade; followed by the reflexive pronoun. "Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter." Note: This sense is probably due to a false etymology which regarded the word as connected with the adjective mean.

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Etymology of 'Demeaning'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Demeaning" Quotes from Famous Books

... not think it demeaning myself,' said Lancelot, smiling; 'but I never was at one, and I should like for once to see the real ...

— Yeast: A Problem • Charles Kingsley

... you have a deal of travelling to do," said Mr. Neefit, "and don't get much at the end of it. It's because he's come in for his 'eritance, which he never would have had only for me, that he's demeaning himself this fashion. It ain't acting the gentleman; it ain't the thing; it's off the square. Only for me and my money there wouldn't be an acre his this blessed minute;—d——d if there would! I saved it for him, by ...

— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... said Jackeymo, "they are only in arrear. As if the Padrone could not pay them some day or other—as if I was demeaning myself by serving a master who did not intend to pay his servants! And can't I wait? Have I not my savings too? But be cheered, be cheered; you shall be contented with me. I have two beautiful suits still. I was arranging ...

— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various

... might have been less demeaning had the black soldier been convinced that he was a full partner in the crusade against fascism. As news of the conversion of black units from combat to service duties and the word that no new black combat units were ...

— Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 • Morris J. MacGregor Jr.

... has gone after Harold!" indignantly exclaimed Eustace. "It is too bad! I declare I will put a stop to it! To have my sister demeaning herself to put herself in such a situation for ...

— My Young Alcides - A Faded Photograph • Charlotte M. Yonge