Denigrate Meaning and Usage

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Meaning:

verb

- to blacken; to defame; to disparage the character of; speak ill of;
- to belittle, to run down, to deny the importance of something

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Derivatives:

denigratory - adjective
denigration - noun
denigrator - noun
denigrative – adjective

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Use Denigrate in a sentence:

1. During an election campaign, it has become customary for one candidate to attempt to denigrate the other’s reputation.

2. Yes. It is not necessary to denigrate an idea with which you disagree in order to prove your own position worthwhile.

3. I do not denigrate the good intentions of those who gave birth to these abject social policy failures.

4. I know I shouldn't denigrate her behind her back, but if I do it in her presence, she will probably take offense.

5. Negative advertising consists of denigrating one’s competitor’s product.

6. After finding out her evil secret, he announced it to the council and denigrated her in public.

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Synonyms (Denigrate):
accuse, asperse, befoul, belittle, besmear, besmirch, bespatter, blacken, calumniate, charge, cloud, decry, defame, deprecate, derogate, detract, dirty, discount, disparage, downgrade, impugn, libel, malign, minimize, revile, slander, slight, smear, smirch, smudge, smut, soil, spatter, stain, sully, taint, tarnish, traduce, vilify

Antonyms (Denigrate):
boost, cherish, compliment, praise; to laud; to acclaim


Synonyms (Denigration):
aspersion, attack, belittlement, belittling, calumniation, calumny, defamation, deprecation, derogation, detraction, disparagement, dispraise, minimization, scandal, slander, traducement, vilification.

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Related words:

Degrade/Downgrade:
Downgrade: When something is downgraded, it is lowered in grade (usually made worse), not just considered worse. “When the president of the company fled with fifteen million dollars, its bonds were downgraded to junk bond status.”

Degrade is much more flexible in meaning. It can mean to lower in status or rank (like “downgrade”) or to corrupt or make contemptible; but it always has to do with actual reduction in value rather than mere insult, like “denigrate.”


Deprecate/Depriciate:
Deprecate means “disapprove”.

Depreciate, which, like “downgrade” is not a mere matter of approval or opinion but signifies an actual lowering of value.

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Word Origin:

If you "denigrate" someone, you attempt to blacken their reputation. It makes sense, therefore, that "denigrate" can be traced back to the Latin verb "denigrare," meaning "to blacken." When "denigrate" was first used in English in the 16th century, it meant to cast aspersions on someone's character or reputation. Eventually, it developed a second sense of "to make black" ("factory smoke denigrated the sky"), but this sense is somewhat rare in modern usage. Nowadays, of course, "denigrate" can also refer to belittling the worth or importance of someone or something.

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Some more examples:

1. Although some medical experts denigrate the new technology, others believe that the experimental results have been quite promising.

2. Her attempt to denigrate the man's name was not successful.

3. The critics have denigrated our efforts.

4. I do not wish to denigrate the efforts of the 1990 or 1996 teams.

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