Definitions

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

  • adjective Expressing disapproval or criticism.
  • adjective Mildly disparaging or uncomplimentary, especially of oneself.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Serving or intended to deprecate or avert some threatened evil or action; characterized by entreaty or protest intended to avert something evil or painful.
  • noun A deprecating speech or act.

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

  • adjective Tending to remove or avert evil by prayer; apologetic.
  • adjective Serving to deprecate; expressing a low opinion of.

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

  • adjective That deprecates; apologetic or disparaging

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

  • adjective tending to diminish or disparage

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

deprecate +‎ -ory

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Examples

  • As the handsome and distinguished-looking bridegroom stood before the altar awaiting the entrance of his bride, it were almost sacrilege to utter a word deprecatory or otherwise.

    Marguerite Verne Rebecca Agatha Armour

  • A flaccid, unwholesome-looking hand was raised slowly, in a kind of deprecatory gesture; then allowed to fall again upon the belly where it lay, with the five fingers, round and chalky-white, extended like the rays of a starfish.

    South Wind Norman Douglas 1910

  • A gravely sedate demeanour would have seemed the more fitting facial expression for his age and the generally accepted nature of his calling, -- a kind of deprecatory toleration of the sunshine as part of the universal 'vanity' of mundane things, -- or a condescending consciousness of the bursting apple-blossoms within his reach as a kind of inferior earthy circumstance which could neither be altered nor avoided.

    God's Good Man Marie Corelli 1889

  • A gravely sedate demeanour would have seemed the more fitting facial expression for his age and the generally accepted nature of his calling, -- a kind of deprecatory toleration of the sunshine as part of the universal 'vanity' of mundane things, -- or a condescending consciousness of the bursting apple-blossoms within his reach as a kind of inferior earthy circumstance which could neither be altered nor avoided.

    God's Good Man Marie Corelli 1889

  • A gravely sedate demeanour would have seemed the more fitting facial expression for his age and the generally accepted nature of his calling, -- a kind of deprecatory toleration of the sunshine as part of the universal 'vanity' of mundane things, -- or a condescending consciousness of the bursting apple-blossoms within his reach as a kind of inferior earthy circumstance which could neither be altered nor avoided.

    God's Good Man Marie Corelli 1889

  • What put that idea into your head? "replied my father, with a kind of deprecatory smile.

    Desk and Debit or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk Oliver Optic 1859

  • Ninety-nine times out of 100 when I have heard Mexicans use the word 'gringo' it's in a way that is deprecatory or worse, usually preceded by 'pinche' -- in other words, designed to be taken as an offense.

    GRINGOS AND GRINGAS....what's in an appelation? 2009

  • At a nod from him, the semicircle seated itself on the manienie grass, and with further deprecatory smiles waited his pleasure.

    THE BONES OF KAHEKILI 2010

  • Ninety-nine times out of 100 when I have heard Mexicans use the word 'gringo' it's in a way that is deprecatory or worse, usually preceded by 'pinche' -- in other words, designed to be taken as an offense.

    GRINGOS AND GRINGAS....what's in an appelation? 2009

  • Ninety-nine times out of 100 when I have heard Mexicans use the word 'gringo' it's in a way that is deprecatory or worse, usually preceded by 'pinche' -- in other words, designed to be taken as an offense.

    GRINGOS AND GRINGAS....what's in an appelation? 2009

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