DEMEANING

demeaning, humbling, humiliating, mortifying

(adjective) causing awareness of your shortcomings; “golf is a humbling game”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Verb

demeaning

present participle of demean

Adjective

demeaning (comparative more demeaning, superlative most demeaning)

degrading; that degrades

Anagrams

• meaninged

Source: Wiktionary


DEMEAN

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



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Word of the Day

1 May 2024

ABOUND

(verb) be in a state of movement or action; “The room abounded with screaming children”; “The garden bristled with toddlers”


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, the most massive cup of coffee contained 22,739.14 liters and was created by Alcaldía Municipal de Chinchiná (Colombia) at Parque de Bolívar, Chinchiná, Caldas, Colombia, on 15 June 2019. Fifty people worked for more than a month to build this giant cup. The drink prepared was Arabic coffee.

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