abase
Definitions
To lower someone's rank, status, or dignity; to humiliate or degrade
贬低，羞辱
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedab- (down/away) + base = 'to bring down to the base.' If your standing is a pedestal, to abase someone is to push them off it down to the ground. The physical lowering became social humiliation.
Root bas still carries 5 more wordsUsage Guide
Register: abase is formal and literary, often reflexive — 'abase oneself before someone' (grovel, debase one's own dignity). In everyday English, debase (lower the quality/value of a thing) and humiliate (shame a person) are far more common.
Example Sentences
- 1.
He refused to abase himself by begging for the job.
- 2.
The tyrant tried to abase his rivals in public.
Easily Confused
abase vs debase — abase lowers a person's dignity (abase oneself); debase lowers the quality or value of a thing (debase the currency). People are abased; things are debased.