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View synonyms for downgrade

downgrade

[ doun-greyd ]

noun

  1. a downward slope, especially of a road.


adjective

verb (used with object)

, down·grad·ed, down·grad·ing.
  1. to assign to a lower status with a smaller salary.
  2. to minimize the importance of; denigrate:

    She tried to downgrade the findings of the investigation.

  3. to assign a lower security classification to (information, a document, etc.).

downgrade

/ ˈdaʊnˌɡreɪd /

verb

  1. to reduce in importance, esteem, or value, esp to demote (a person) to a poorer job
  2. to speak of disparagingly


noun

  1. a downward slope, esp in a road
  2. on the downgrade
    on the downgrade waning in importance, popularity, health, etc

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Other Words From

  • downgrader noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of downgrade1

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60; down 1 + grade

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. on the downgrade, in a decline toward an inferior state or position:

    His career has been on the downgrade.

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Example Sentences

For instance, when Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, it was downgraded to a Category 1 storm, only to tragically stall and dump enough rain to break at least 28 flood records.

Laura has now been downgraded to Category 2 storm, but it’s still barreling over Louisiana with winds of 110 mph.

The hurricane knocked out power for more than 800,000 people in Louisiana and eastern Texas before it was downgraded to a tropical storm on Thursday afternoon.

From Quartz

Nearly 40% of students ended up receiving exam scores downgraded from their teachers’ predictions, threatening to cost them their university spots.

In practice, this means Facebook’s algorithms will no longer recommend users join QAnon groups, and will downgrade the prominence of QAnon in its news feed.

From Fortune

"The Uri Blau conviction as part of a plea bargain alone merits a downgrade," said Omer-Man.

I did The Girlfriend Experience on film and Entourage on television, and to downgrade from that would be silly.

One ratings agency is threatening to downgrade the U.S. if we go over the fiscal cliff.

A ratings downgrade, Bell said, would be the absolute last thing to move the needle as far as urgency over the deficit.

The downgrade probably scores short-term political points for both leaders.

In the general ferment, commercial honesty had been on the downgrade.

I do not want to downgrade any police department, but this is what happens through no fault of theirs.

From Houston we turned onto Elm, which was a rather sharp turn with a downgrade, sir.

The inference is obvious: that the Monarchists are on the upgrade, and the Republicans on the downgrade.

As he did this the turnout reached a point in the road where the downgrade was greater than ever.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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