DEMEANING • FREE-TRANSLATOR.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

... them. This is demonstrated in the style of the volante, where the small horse is made not only to draw the vehicle, but also to carry a large negro on his back as driver. Now, if reins were used, there would be no occasion for the postilion at all, but a Spaniard or Creole would think it demeaning to drive his own vehicle. With abundance of leisure, and the ever present influences of their genial clime, where the heart's blood leaps more swiftly to the promptings of the imagination and where the female form earliest attains its maturity, ...

— Due South or Cuba Past and Present • Maturin M. Ballou

... no such thing," 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

... case he pretended that the chief employments of a state ought to be equally accessible to the rich and the poor, as he seems to insinuate, his opinion is refuted by the general practice of the wisest republics; for these, without any way demeaning or aspersing poverty, have thought that, on this occasion, the preference ought to be given to riches; because it is to be presumed that the wealthy have received a better education, have nobler sentiments, are more out of the reach of corruption, ...

— The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, • Charles Rollin