DEMEANS

Verb

demeans

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of demean

Anagrams

• Nadeems, amendes, seedman

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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Coffee Trivia

Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.

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