demean

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /dɪˈmiːn/
  • Rhymes: -iːn

Etymology 1

(1595) From de- +‎ mean (“lowly, base, common”), from Middle English mene, aphetic variation of imene (“mean, base, common”), from Old English ġemǣne (“mean, common”). Compare English bemean.

Verb

demean (third-person singular simple present demeans, present participle demeaning, simple past and past participle demeaned)

  1. To debase; to lower; to degrade.
    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 6:
      It was, of course, Mrs. Sedley's opinion that her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.
  2. To humble, humble oneself; to humiliate.
  3. To mortify.

Synonyms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English demenen, demeinen, from Anglo-Norman demener, from Old French demener, from de- + mener (“to conduct, lead”), from Vulgar Latin *mināre (“to drive”) and Latin minārī (“to threaten”).

Verb

demean (third-person singular simple present demeans, present participle demeaning, simple past and past participle demeaned)

  1. To manage; to conduct; to treat.
    • Milton
      [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.
  2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.
    • Shakespeare
      They have demeaned themselves / Like men born to renown by life or death.
    • Clarendon
      They answered […] that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.
Translations

Noun

demean (usually uncountable, plural demeans)

  1. (archaic) Management; treatment.
    • Spenser
      vile demean and usage bad
  2. (archaic) Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.5:
      ‘When thou hast all this doen, then bring me newes / Of his demeane […].’
    • West
      with grave demean and solemn vanity
Translations

Etymology 3

Variant of demesne.

Noun

demean (plural demeans)

  1. demesne.
  2. resources; means.
Translations

Anagrams

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