denigrate
verb
Did you know?
If you "denigrate" someone, you attempt to blacken their reputation. It makes sense, therefore, that "denigrate" can be traced back to the Latin verb denigrare, meaning "to blacken." When "denigrate" was first used in English in the 16th century, it meant to cast aspersions on someone's character or reputation. Eventually, it developed a second sense of "to make black" ("factory smoke denigrated the sky"), but this sense is somewhat rare in modern usage. Nowadays, of course, "denigrate" can also refer to belittling the worth or importance of someone or something.
Synonyms
Examples of denigrate in a Sentence
Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2024
Vance and, by extension, Donald Trump, who selected Vance as his running mate even though the denigrating remarks were already public, are at fault for not protecting, much less knowing, the constitutional rights of childless women and, by extension, all Americans.
—Chicago Tribune, 5 Aug. 2024
Bill Behan’s letter denigrating younger voters exemplifies perfectly why so many of them are delighted by the prospects of a candidate like Kamala Harris.
—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 4 Aug. 2024
Russ Vought, a Trump ally, publicly denigrated the Federalist Society, the legal networking group Leo and others built into a juggernaut.
—Andy Kroll, ProPublica, 16 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for denigrate 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'denigrate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Denigrate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denigrate. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
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