degrade
gb/dɪɡɹˈeɪd/ us/dɪɡɹˈeɪd/
B2
Anglais
~ 8200
Sens
0 sens
Verbe
B2
action
1
to humiliate or demean someone
to make someone feel small, ashamed, or without respect by how you treat or talk to them
Schéma d’usage :
to degrade [someone]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners sometimes confuse "degrade" with "decrease" or "downgrade". "Degrade" in this sense is about hurting a person’s dignity or self-respect, not just making something lower in level or amount. Use an object that is a person, e.g. "degrade him", not "degrade his salary" (better: "reduce" or "cut his salary").
Synonymes
humiliate (focuses strongly on making someone feel very embarrassed and ashamed, often in public)
|
demean (very close in meaning, but slightly more formal and often used for repeated or general behavior)
Antonymes
respect (means to treat someone as valuable and worthy, the opposite of lowering their dignity)
|
honor (emphasizes showing high respect and admiration instead of making someone feel low)
Collocations
degrade someone
|publicly degrade
|sexually degrading
|deeply degrading
|degrading treatment
|degrade herself/himself
Thèmes
emotions
|social
|ethics
|relationships
Exemples
- He constantly degraded his staff, shouting at them in front of clients.
- The comments were meant to degrade her because of her appearance.
- They complained that the prisoners were degraded and denied basic human rights.
- She refused to take part in a show that degraded women.
- The boss’s jokes were degrading and made the whole team uncomfortable.
Exemples pédagogiques
- The teacher must not degrade students in class.
- He felt degraded when his manager yelled at him.
- Those words were very degrading to her.
- She will not stay in a job where they degrade her.
- It is wrong to degrade people because of their job.
Verbe
B2
action
2
to damage or worsen quality
to make something worse or weaker in quality, or to become worse or weaker
Schéma d’usage :
to degrade [something]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners sometimes use "degrade" when they just mean "go down" in number, for example, "Prices degraded" (incorrect). In that case, use "fell" or "went down". Use "degrade" when quality, condition, or performance becomes worse, not just the amount.
Synonymes
damage (general word for harming something; does not always imply a steady or long-term reduction in quality like "degrade" can)
|
impair (more formal; often used for slowly reducing effectiveness or function)
Antonymes
improve (means to make something better in quality, the opposite of making it worse)
|
enhance (focuses on increasing quality or value rather than reducing it)
Collocations
degrade the environment
|degrade soil quality
|degrade performance
|image quality degrades
|degraded conditions
|degrade the experience
Thèmes
environment
|technology
|science
|core_vocabulary
Exemples
- Constant logging has severely degraded the forest ecosystem.
- Over time, heat and moisture can degrade the adhesive and cause the tiles to fall off.
- Cheap cables can degrade the signal and lead to poor sound quality.
- The app’s performance degraded after the last update.
- Living in such degraded housing conditions is dangerous for children.
Exemples pédagogiques
- Strong sun can degrade the color of the paint.
- Pollution degrades the quality of the air.
- The battery degrades after many charges.
- Bad working conditions can degrade workers’ health.
- Over time, the road surface degraded and became unsafe.
Verbe
technical
C1
action
3
to chemically or biologically break down
to break or change a material into simpler parts because of chemicals, light, heat, or living things like bacteria
Schéma d’usage :
to degrade [material]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners may confuse "degrade" with "biodegrade". "Biodegrade" is specifically about breaking down by living things like bacteria, while "degrade" is more general and can include light, heat, or chemical action. Also, in technical writing, "degrade" is often intransitive ("the material degrades"), not only transitive.
Synonymes
decompose (often used for natural breaking down of organic matter; slightly less technical in everyday environmental contexts)
|
break down (phrasal verb commonly used in non-technical and semi-technical talk instead of "degrade")
Antonymes
stabilize (in materials science, means to make a substance resist change instead of breaking down)
|
preserve (focuses on keeping something from changing or decaying)
Collocations
biodegrade / biodegrade slowly
|easily degraded
|degrade over time
|plastic that degrades
|sunlight degrades the material
|enzymes that degrade proteins
Thèmes
science
|environment
|technology
|nature
Exemples
- These bags are designed to degrade within six months in a landfill.
- Ultraviolet light can quickly degrade certain plastics.
- The enzyme rapidly degrades the toxin in the bloodstream.
- Some chemicals do not degrade easily and can remain in the environment for decades.
- The coating prevents the metal from degrading when exposed to salt water.
Exemples pédagogiques
- This kind of plastic does not degrade in the ocean.
- Bacteria help dead plants degrade into the soil.
- The medicine degrades if you keep it in high heat.
- Over many years, the rock slowly degrades into sand.
- Light from the sun degrades the material.
Verbe
formal
C1
action
4
to reduce rank or status
to take away someone’s level, rank, or position and give them a lower one, often as a punishment
Schéma d’usage :
to degrade [someone] to [a lower rank]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners often use "degrade" instead of "demote" in modern work situations. In most everyday office contexts, "demote" is more natural: "He was demoted to assistant", not usually "degraded". "Degrade" for rank now sounds more formal or historical.
Synonymes
demote (more common in modern work and everyday contexts; sounds less formal and old-fashioned than "degrade" in this sense)
|
downgrade (used for status or importance, especially in business or technical settings, but less about official rank as punishment)
Antonymes
promote (to move someone to a higher rank or position, the direct opposite of lowering their rank)
|
elevate (more formal; to raise someone to a higher status or position)
Collocations
degrade an officer
|degrade him to private
|degraded in rank
|ceremonially degraded
|degrade a member
|degrade her from her position
Thèmes
work
|law
|military
|business
Exemples
- After the scandal, the officer was formally degraded to the lowest rank.
- He was publicly degraded and stripped of his title.
- Under the new rules, members found guilty of fraud can be degraded or expelled.
- The committee decided not to degrade her but issued a severe warning instead.
- In the ceremony, he was degraded from captain to lieutenant.
Exemples pédagogiques
- The soldier was degraded to private after he broke the rules.
- They wanted to degrade him from manager to assistant.
- She feared that a mistake could degrade her in the company.
- The king degraded the noble and took his title.
- He was degraded and lost his high position.
Grammaire
Forme canonique
degrade
API
GB/dɪɡɹˈeɪd/
US/dɪɡɹˈeɪd/
Syllabes et accentuation
de - grade (2 syllabes)
Stress on 2nd syllable (grade)
Formes du mot
Verb
- Base: degrade
- 3rd Person Singular: degrades
- Present Participle: degrading
- Past: degraded
Famille de mots
Forms
degrades
verb
degrading
verb
degraded
verb
Core family
degradation
noun B2
Related words
degradable
adjective
biodegrade
verb
biodegradable
adjective
Negative and opposite forms
nondegradable
adjective
Advanced or less common
degradability
noun
biodegradation
noun
Expressions
Aucune expression n’est encore associée à cette entrée.