Adjacent Words

Demoralize definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEMORALIZE, v.t. To corrupt or undermine the morals of ; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt in morals.
The effect would be to demoralize mankind.
The native vigor of the soul must wholly disappear, under the steady influence and the demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; "debauch the young people with wine and women"; "Socrates was accused of corrupting young men"; "Do school counselors subvert young children?"; "corrupt the morals" [syn: corrupt, pervert, subvert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch, debase, profane, vitiate, deprave, misdirect]
2: lower someone's spirits; make downhearted; "These news depressed her"; "The bad state of her child's health demoralizes her" [syn: depress, deject, cast down, get down, dismay, dispirit, demoralize, demoralise] [ant: elate, intoxicate, lift up, pick up, uplift]
3: confuse or put into disorder; "the boss's behavior demoralized everyone in the office"

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Date: circa 1793 1. to corrupt the morals of 2. a. to weaken the morale of ; discourage, dispirit b. to upset or destroy the normal functioning of c. to throw into disorder • demoralization noun • demoralizer noun • demoralizingly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. (also -ise) 1 destroy (a person's) morale; make hopeless. 2 archaic corrupt (a person's) morals. Derivatives: demoralization n. demoralizing adj. demoralizingly adv. Etymology: F démoraliser (as DE-, MORAL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Demoralize De*mor"al*ize, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Demoralized; p. pr. & vb. n. Demoralizing.] [F. d['e]moraliser; pref. d['e]- (L. dis- or de) + moraliser. See Moralize.] To corrupt or undermine in morals; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt or untrustworthy in morals, in discipline, in courage, spirit, etc.; to weaken in spirit or efficiency. The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. --Walsh. The vices of the nobility had demoralized the army. --Bancroft.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(demoralizes, demoralizing, demoralized) Note: in BRIT, also use 'demoralise' If something demoralizes someone, it makes them lose so much confidence in what they are doing that they want to give up. Clearly, one of the objectives is to demoralize the enemy troops in any way they can. VERB: V n • demoralized The ship's crew were now exhausted and utterly demoralized. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Corrupt, deprave, vitiate, deprive of moral principle. 2. (Mil.) Deprive of courage or confidence, break down the morale or discipline of.

Moby Thesaurus

agitate, bastardize, bewilder, bludgeon, bluster, bluster out of, browbeat, brutalize, bulldoze, bully, chill, confuse, corrupt, cow, cripple, crush, damp, dampen, dash, daunt, debase, debauch, debilitate, defeat, defile, deject, deprave, depress, devitalize, disarrange, discomfit, disconcert, discourage, dishearten, disorder, disorganize, disparage, dispirit, disturb, dragoon, enervate, fluster, harass, hector, huff, intimidate, jumble, knock down, muddle, overcome, perturb, pervert, prostrate, psych out, rattle, shake, shake up, snarl, soil, subdue, sully, systematically terrorize, terrorize, threaten, unbrace, undermine, undo, unman, unnerve, unsettle, unstring, upset, vitiate, warp, weaken