Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To attack the character or reputation of; speak ill of; defame.
  • transitive verb To disparage; belittle: synonym: disparage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Blackened; turned black.
  • To blacken; make black.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To blacken thoroughly; to make very black.
  • transitive verb rare Fig.: To blacken or sully; to defame.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To criticise so as to besmirch; traduce, disparage or defame.
  • verb transitive To treat as worthless; belittle, degrade or disparage.
  • verb rare To blacken.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone
  • verb cause to seem less serious; play down

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin dēnigrāre, dēnigrāt-, to blacken, defame : dē-, de- + niger, nigr-, black; see nekw-t- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin dēnigrātus, the past participle of dēnigrāre ("to blacken"), from + nigrare 'to blacken (from niger ("black"))

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Examples

  • BTW, what the heck does my being black have to do with use of the word denigrate, when that word describes what I mean to say?

    Firedoglake » It’s Bill Clinton’s Fault 2006

  • I often do that ... but please quote where I "denigrate" Cao's (possible) naivete of the political establishment (which I actually consider to be a personal virtue, btw) and please quote where I call into question this guy's "sanity"?

    Your Right Hand Thief 2008

  • In Venezuela, it is illegal to publish news accountsthat might be deemed to "denigrate" President Hugo Ch vez.

    Argentina Moves to Seize Newsprint Firm 2010

  • KURTZ: But Obama does this a lot, where he takes these swipes at cable television and the pundits, and you can tell that he likes to try to stake out a middle ground and kind of denigrate the press in the process, which is his right.

    CNN Transcript May 24, 2009 2009

  • KURTZ: But Obama does this a lot, where he takes these swipes at cable television and the pundits, and you can tell that he likes to try to stake out a middle ground and kind of denigrate the press in the process, which is his right.

    CNN Transcript May 24, 2009 2009

  • To that extent and to the extent that he thought the Khmer Rouge considered Phnom Penh "Sodom and Gomorrah" Sampson did indeed "denigrate" the food imperative of the evacuation.

    Good Luck Sailor 2009

  • And, clearly, that's -- that's really a-- a way to kind of denigrate these cultures and these religions by justifying these really heinous acts in this way.

    CNN Transcript May 18, 2007 2007

  • As a matter of fact, they kind of denigrate the whole idea of tankless heaters:

    Hot water « knitnut.net 2007

  • Mr. Stollery Liberal Senator agreed that there is a campaign in Canada to "denigrate" UN operations.

    Archive 2006-03-01 2006

  • Hundreds of people have been arrested under the same section of the law, which also makes it an offence to "denigrate" the 79-year - old dictator, under whose rule since 1980 one of the most prosperous economies in Africa has been brought to its knees.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2003

Comments

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  • verb: charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone

    Count Rumford denigrated the new theory of heat, demonstrating that it was wholly inadequate to explain the observations.

    October 19, 2016