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Webster 1913 Edition


Belittle

Be-lit′tle

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Belittled
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Belittling
.]
To make little or less in a moral sense; to speak of in a depreciatory or contemptuous way.
T. Jefferson.

Definition 2024


belittle

belittle

English

Verb

belittle (third-person singular simple present belittles, present participle belittling, simple past and past participle belittled)

  1. To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is.
    • 2006, Mark Steyn, chapter 9, in America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, ISBN 0895260786, page 201:
      Under the rules as understood by the New York Times, the West is free to mock and belittle its Judeo-Christian inheritance, and, likewise, the Muslim world is free to mock and belittle the West's Judeo-Christian inheritance.

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