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''deprecate'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''deprecate'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250713133336-00-⌔

deprecate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

deprecate (third-person singular simple present deprecates, present participle deprecating, simple past and past participle deprecated)

  • (transitive) To express disapproval of, protest or plead against.
    • ✤ Synonyms: disparage, denounce; see also Thesaurus: criticize
    • ✤ Antonyms: recommend, endorse
    • ✤ They deprecated the attempt to deny aid to homeless people.
    • ✤ She deprecated any action which might disturb the peace.
    • ✤ He spoke of Ethel continually; entreated her to forgive him; deprecated her coldness; and implored her to retract her refusal.1
  • (transitive) To belittle, depreciate.
    • ✤ Synonyms: deprecate, disparage, make light of; see also Thesaurus: trivialize
    • ✤ Antonyms: praise, commend; see also Thesaurus: exaggerate, Thesaurus: glorify
    • ✤ He deprecates any praise of his own merits.
    • ✤ Prior to the 1980s, Australian English had been widely deprecated by Australians themselves, principally as a result of a sense of inferiority known as “cultural cringe”.2
  • (transitive, chiefly computing) To declare something obsolescent; to recommend against a function, technique, command, etc. that still works but has been replaced.
    • ✤ Synonyms: disrecommend, unprescribe
    • ✤ The ‘bold’ tag has been deprecated in favour of the ‘strong’ tag.
    • ✤ It is still supported but strongly deprecated.
    • ✤ A deprecated function works in the currently released version of Perl 5 but may not be supported in future releases of Perl 5.3
  • (archaic, transitive) To pray against.
    • ✤ And in deprecating of Evil, we make an humble Acknowledgement of Guilt; and of God’s Juſtice in chaſtizing, as well as Clemency, in ſparing the Guilty.4
    • ✤ […], though the Temporal Judgments which We Deprecate, are not remov’d.5
  • (archaic, transitive) To regret deeply.
    • ✤ Synonyms: repent, rue; see also Thesaurus: lament

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēprecātus, perfect active participle of dēprecor (“to pray against (a present or impending evil) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), pray for, intercede for (that which is in danger), rarely imprecate”), from dē- (“off”) +‎ precor (“to pray”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈdɛpɹɪkeɪt/, /ˈdɛpɹəkeɪt/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (US) IPA: /ˈdɛp.rɪˌkeɪt/
  • Hyphenation: dep‧re‧cate

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Return to Courtenaye Hall”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 150: ↩

  2. 2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes ‎, page 295: ↩

  3. 2003, Dave Evans et al., Perl, CGI, and JavaScript Complete, Sybex, →ISBN: ↩

  4. 1701, Nehemiah Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, London: W. Rogers, S. Smith, and B. Walford, page 126: ↩

  5. 1712, George Smalridge, A Sermon, Preach’d at the Royal Chapel at St. James’s on Wedneſday, January the 16th, 1711/12, London: Jonah Bowyer, page 18: ↩

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