demeaning, humbling, humiliating, mortifying
(adjective) causing awareness of your shortcomings; “golf is a humbling game”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
demeaning
present participle of demean
demeaning (comparative more demeaning, superlative most demeaning)
degrading; that degrades
• meaninged
Source: Wiktionary
De*mean", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Demeaned; p. pr. & vb. n. Demeaning.] Etym: [OF. demener to conduct, guide, manage, F. se démener to struggledé- (L. de) + mener to lead, drive, carry on, conduct, fr. L. minare to drive animals by threatening cries, fr. minari to threaten. See Menace.]
1. To manage; to conduct; to treat. [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter. Milton.
2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death. Shak. They answered . . . that they should demean themselves according to their instructions. Clarendon.
3. To debase; to lower; to degrade; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter. Thackeray.
Note: This sense is probably due to a false etymology which regarded the word as connected with the adjective mean.
De*mean", n. Etym: [OF. demene. See Demean, v. t.]
1. Management; treatment. [Obs.] Vile demean and usage bad. Spenser.
2. Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor. [Obs.] With grave demean and solemn vanity. West.
De*mean", n. Etym: [See Demesne.]
1. Demesne. [Obs.]
2. pl.
Definition: Resources; means. [Obs.] You know How narrow our demeans are. Massinger.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
24 May 2025
(adjective) sufficiently significant to affect the whole world; “earthshaking proposals”; “the contest was no world-shaking affair”; “the conversation...could hardly be called world-shattering”
The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.
