English Explanatory Dictionary

humiliate

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb

To cause to be ashamed; to injure the dignity and self-respect of.
To make humble; to lower in condition or status.
To defeat overwhelmingly.

Pronunciation

/hjuːˈmɪliˌeɪt/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-humiliate.wav

Word forms

humiliate humiliates humiliating humiliated

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin humiliātus, perfect passive participle of humiliō (“to abase, humble”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from Latin humilis (“lowly, humble”), from humus (“ground; earth, soil”); see humble.

Synonyms

debase demean disgrace mortify shame abase abash bring low confuse confound degrade depress disconcert discomfit dishonour embarrass humble humiliate lower put to shame demote bring down to size cut down to size defame discredit disparage downgrade embase give a bad name knock down to size put someone in their place reduce relegate sink slur trim down to size whittle down to size

Antonyms

dignify honor advance aggrandize elevate ennoble exalt nobilitate prefer promote raise uplift

Related words

humble humiliation humility

Derived words

humiliatable humiliatrix rehumiliate

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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