ABASE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abase mean? 

• ABASE (verb)
  The verb ABASE has 1 sense:

1. cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of

  Familiarity information: ABASE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABASE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they abase    ... he / she / it abases   
Past simple: abased   
Past participle: abased   
-ing form: abasing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

abase; chagrin; humble; humiliate; mortify

Context example:

He humiliated his colleague by criticising him in front of the boss

Hypernyms (to "abase" is one way to...):

bruise; hurt; injure; offend; spite; wound (hurt the feelings of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "abase"):

crush; smash (humiliate or depress completely)

degrade; demean; disgrace; put down; take down (reduce in worth or character, usually verbally)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

abasement (depriving one of self-esteem)

 Context examples 

As they abased themselves before him, Mr. Micawber took a seat, and waved his hand in his most courtly manner.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Meg pardoned him, and Mrs. March's grave face relaxed, in spite of her efforts to keep sober, when she heard him declare that he would atone for his sins by all sorts of penances, and abase himself like a worm before the injured damsel.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“Didn't I know it! But how little you think of the rightful umbleness of a person in my station, Master Copperfield! Father and me was both brought up at a foundation school for boys; and mother, she was likewise brought up at a public, sort of charitable, establishment. They taught us all a deal of umbleness—not much else that I know of, from morning to night. We was to be umble to this person, and umble to that; and to pull off our caps here, and to make bows there; and always to know our place, and abase ourselves before our betters. And we had such a lot of betters! Father got the monitor-medal by being umble. So did I. Father got made a sexton by being umble. He had the character, among the gentlefolks, of being such a well-behaved man, that they were determined to bring him in. “Be umble, Uriah,” says father to me, “and you'll get on. It was what was always being dinned into you and me at school; it's what goes down best. Be umble,” says father, “and you'll do!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)