demean - definition, synonyms and pronunciation

Open English WordNet

Verb (1)demeaned, demeaning

reduce in worth or character, usually verbally“She tends to put down younger women colleagues”“His critics took him down after the lecture”Synonyms: take down degrade disgrace put downMore general humiliate, mortifyMore specific reduce, dehumanize

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demureadjective

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Webster's Dictionary (1913)

De·mean′ transitive verb [past tense & past participle Demeaned; present participle & verbal noun Demeaning.]

Origin: OF. demener to conduct, guide, manage, F. se démener to struggle; pref. dé- (L. de) + mener to lead, drive, carry on, conduct, fr. L. minare to drive animals by threatening cries, fr. minari to threaten. See Menace.

1. To manage; to conduct; to treat.

[Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.— John Milton

2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; — followed by the reflexive pronoun.

They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death.— William Shakespeare

They answered... that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.— Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon

3. To debase; to lower; to degrade; — followed by the reflexive pronoun.

Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.— William M. Thackeray

☞ This sense is probably due to a false etymology which regarded the word as connected with the adjective mean.

De·mean′ noun

Origin: OF. demene. See Demean, transitive verb

1. Management; treatment. obsolete

Vile demean and usage bad.— Edmund Spenser

2. Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor. obsolete

With grave demean and solemn vanity.— Richard West

De·mean′ noun

Origin: See Demesne.

1. Demesne. obsolete

2. pl. Resources; means. obsolete

You know How narrow our demeans are.— Philip Massinger

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54