Adjacent Words

Denigrate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DENIGRATE, v.t. [L. Black.] To blacken; to make black.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: cause to seem less serious; play down; "Don't belittle his influence" [syn: minimize, belittle, denigrate, derogate]
2: charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone; "The journalists have defamed me!" "The article in the paper sullied my reputation" [syn: defame, slander, smirch, asperse, denigrate, calumniate, smear, sully, besmirch]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (-grated; -grating) Etymology: Latin denigratus, past participle of denigrare, from de- + nigrare to blacken, from nigr-, niger black Date: 1526 1. to attack the reputation of ; defame <denigrate one's opponents> 2. to deny the importance or validity of ; belittle <denigrate their achievements> • denigration noun • denigrative adjective • denigrator noun • denigratory adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. defame or disparage the reputation of (a person); blacken. Derivatives: denigration n. denigrator n. denigratory adj. Etymology: L denigrare (as DE-, nigrare f. niger black)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Denigrate Den"i*grate, v. t. [L. denigrare; de- + nigrare to blacken, niger black.] 1. To blacken thoroughly; to make very black. --Boyle. 2. Fig.: To blacken or sully; to defame. [R.] To denigrate the memory of Voltaire. --Morley.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(denigrates, denigrating, denigrated) If you denigrate someone or something, you criticize them unfairly or insult them. The amendment prohibits obscene or indecent materials which denigrate the objects or beliefs of a particular religion... VERB: V n • denigration ...the denigration of minorities in this country. N-UNCOUNT: usu N of n

Moby Thesaurus

asperse, bedarken, besmirch, bespatter, black, blacken, blackwash, blot, blotch, call names, calumniate, charcoal, cork, darken, defame, defile, deprecate, depreciate, despise, dinge, discommend, disdain, disparage, dispraise, disvalue, ebonize, engage in personalities, heap dirt upon, hold in contempt, ink, libel, melanize, muckrake, murk, nigrify, oversmoke, put down, revile, ridicule, scandalize, shade, shadow, slander, smear, smirch, smoke, smudge, smut, smutch, soil, soot, stigmatize, sully, tarnish, tear down, throw mud at, traduce, vilify