DEROGATORY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does derogatory mean? 

• DEROGATORY (adjective)
  The adjective DEROGATORY has 1 sense:

1. expressive of low opinion

  Familiarity information: DEROGATORY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEROGATORY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Expressive of low opinion

Synonyms:

derogative; derogatory; disparaging

Context example:

disparaging remarks about the new house

Similar:

uncomplimentary (tending to (or intended to) detract or disparage)

Derivation:

derogate (cause to seem less serious; play down)

 Context examples 

He made a call upon her pity and tenderness that no one had ever made before, and the pity was not so much derogatory of him as maternal in her.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

To have imposed any derogatory work upon him, would have been to inflict a wanton insult on the feelings of a most respectable man.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I suppose there is something in woman's nature that makes a man free to break down before her and express his feelings on the tender or emotional side without feeling it derogatory to his manhood; for when Lord Godalming found himself alone with me he sat down on the sofa and gave way utterly and openly.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It is a new circumstance in romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory of an heroine's dignity; but if it be as new in common life, the credit of a wild imagination will at least be all my own.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

In writing the stuff it seemed that I had committed acts that were, to say the least, derogatory.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)