1
as in to degrade
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
was unwilling to abase himself by pleading guilty to a crime that he did not commit
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2
as in to humiliate
to reduce to a lower standing in one's own eyes or in others' eyes
I certainly don't abase myself when I do good, honest manual labor
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of abase
Turturro was attracted to the novel’s house style: Its manic, sarcastic, abasing observations, largely written in the third person but never far from Sabbath’s perspective, seemed made for the theater.
—
Marc Tracy, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023
Pence has long since perfected the ability to abase himself in public without seeming the least bit ashamed.
—Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2023
Unfortunately, an impulse to abase oneself isn’t resolved by a recognition that human life is a collaboration.
—Caleb Crain, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2021
One by one, internees abase themselves before 60 of their fellow prisoners, repenting of their errors in thinking and their nonprogressive religious practices.
—James E. Person Jr., National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
Marc Tracy, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023
Pence has long since perfected the ability to abase himself in public without seeming the least bit ashamed.
—Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2023
Unfortunately, an impulse to abase oneself isn’t resolved by a recognition that human life is a collaboration.
—Caleb Crain, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2021
One by one, internees abase themselves before 60 of their fellow prisoners, repenting of their errors in thinking and their nonprogressive religious practices.
—James E. Person Jr., National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abase
Verb
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Today’s batteries depend on scarce resources like lithium and cobalt and degrade over time.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
10 Sep. 2025
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These perform well at low to medium heat, but begin to degrade around 500 °F, potentially releasing harmful fumes that can pose health risks.—
Katie Rosenhouse,
Southern Living,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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And Sacks, a PayPal Mafia member and veteran Silicon Valley investor, is just the sort of titan of industry this town routinely devours and humiliates — from Rex Tillerson to, well, Elon Musk.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
8 Sep. 2025
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And whether the Carolina Panthers are just stuck in an endless loop of embarrassment, one that alternately humiliates and enrages their fans.—
Scott Fowler,
Charlotte Observer,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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For decades, bartenders have been defaming the Mai Tai, debasing it, making and selling versions of the drink that were childish and incomplex, saccharine and flat.—
Jason O'Bryan,
Robb Report,
13 Sep. 2025
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Unlike bonds, which promise repayment of the primary investment at a future date, warranting demands for higher yields to offset inflation concerns, gold is a physical asset that cannot be debased by fiscal mismanagement or political interference.—
Lee Ying Shan,
CNBC,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Holmes likewise discredited the MS-13 accusation, for which prosecutors relied on the testimony of coöperating witnesses who either contradicted one another or were otherwise unreliable.—
Cristian Farias,
New Yorker,
15 Sep. 2025
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The Cordell report has since been discredited — missing transcripts, factual errors and even confusion of key witnesses.—
Matthew J. Frauenfeld,
Mercury News,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Foreign powers such as Russia and China, which challenge America and its allies from Europe to the Middle East to Taiwan and the South China Sea, have long been accused of exploiting such divisions through disinformation campaigns that inflame tensions and weaken confidence in American governance.—
Amir Daftari,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Sep. 2025
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But around the equinoxes, the natural buffer weakens.—
Daisy Dobrijevic,
Space.com,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Thousands of multivitamin bottles sold on Amazon and other websites have been recalled over a risk of serious injury or death by poisoning.—
Joel Thayer,
MSNBC Newsweek,
15 Sep. 2025
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During World War II, Husseini became a Nazi collaborator, broadcasting propaganda into the Arab world, touring death camps with his friend Heinrich Himmler, recruiting SS divisions, and hatching a plot to poison Tel Aviv’s water supply.—
Sean Durns,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Beyond wait time fees, the DOJ complaint also details instances where Uber drivers allegedly refused service to passengers with service animals, canceled rides after learning a passenger was blind, or demeaned riders with disabilities.—
Robert Alexander,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Sep. 2025
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Even worse, the guidelines gave room for chatbots to demean people by race and spread false medical claims.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
21 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The additional time exposed to harsh radiation is, not surprisingly, corrupting JunoCam's images.—
Stephen Clark,
ArsTechnica,
12 Sep. 2025
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The baffling Windows 11 update bug that corrupted SSDs now appears to be linked to storage drives running pre-release firmware.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
9 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Abase.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abase. Accessed 16 Sep. 2025.
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