Definition of "degrade"

degrade

/dɪˈɡɹeɪd/

verb
third-person singular simple present degrades, present participle degrading, simple past and past participle degraded
1. (transitive) To lower in value or social position.
  Quotations
  […] [William] Prynne was sentenced by the Star-Chamber Court to be degraded from the bar, to stand in pillory at two places in London and lose an ear at each, to be branded on the forehead, to pay a fine of five thousand pounds, and to be imprisoned for life.
  1858, John Gorham Palfrey, chapter XIV, in History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty. […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, book I, pages 563–564
2. (intransitive, ergative) To reduce in quality or purity.
3. (transitive, geology) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.