DEBASED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does debased mean? 

• DEBASED (adjective)
  The adjective DEBASED has 3 senses:

1. mixed with impurities

2. lowered in value

3. ruined in character or quality

  Familiarity information: DEBASED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEBASED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Mixed with impurities

Synonyms:

adulterate; adulterated; debased

Similar:

impure (combined with extraneous elements)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lowered in value

Synonyms:

debased; degraded; devalued

Context example:

a debased currency

Similar:

low (less than normal in degree or intensity or amount)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Ruined in character or quality

Synonyms:

corrupted; debased; vitiated

Similar:

corrupt (lacking in integrity)

 Context examples 

And you must be reminded here once for all that that former calling of his was by no means at that time in the debased condition to which it afterwards fell.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Instead of working wickedness by night and growing more debased in the assimilating of it by day, she shall take her place with the other Angels.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He had gone away rejected and mortified—disappointed in a very sanguine hope, after a series of what appeared to him strong encouragement; and not only losing the right lady, but finding himself debased to the level of a very wrong one.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I durst make no return to this malicious insinuation, which debased human understanding below the sagacity of a common hound, who has judgment enough to distinguish and follow the cry of the ablest dog in the pack, without being ever mistaken.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)