as in to degrade
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
the long stay on a tropical isle had debauched the ship's crew to the point where they no longer acted like naval professionals
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Recent Examples of debauch
The atmosphere, at once debauched and sombre, felt like a wake, one attendee said.
—
Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2025
But as commercialization took hold, the event metastasized into a pit of hard drugs, drunkenness, and debauch a world apart from its bohemian origins.
—Charlie Campbell, TIME, 17 Mar. 2025
Life is debauched and consistent, until that handsome twentysomething gent wanders into Lee’s favorite watering hole.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Nov. 2024
But as commercialization took hold, the event metastasized into a pit of hard drugs, drunkenness, and debauch a world apart from its bohemian origins.
—Charlie Campbell, TIME, 17 Mar. 2025
In season two, when Mike White’s series decamped to Sicily, the credits riffed on Italian frescoes that got increasingly debauched — with a beat drop from opera to EDM.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2025
Life is debauched and consistent, until that handsome twentysomething gent wanders into Lee’s favorite watering hole.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Nov. 2024
That doesn’t seem especially forbidden or debauched.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 17 July 2024
Instead, Mixtape Pluto is subterranean and nocturnal, hedonistic one minute and aching with regrets the next, debauched but wounded.
—Christopher R. Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2024
Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2025
But as commercialization took hold, the event metastasized into a pit of hard drugs, drunkenness, and debauch a world apart from its bohemian origins.
—Charlie Campbell, TIME, 17 Mar. 2025
Life is debauched and consistent, until that handsome twentysomething gent wanders into Lee’s favorite watering hole.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Nov. 2024
But as commercialization took hold, the event metastasized into a pit of hard drugs, drunkenness, and debauch a world apart from its bohemian origins.
—Charlie Campbell, TIME, 17 Mar. 2025
In season two, when Mike White’s series decamped to Sicily, the credits riffed on Italian frescoes that got increasingly debauched — with a beat drop from opera to EDM.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2025
Life is debauched and consistent, until that handsome twentysomething gent wanders into Lee’s favorite watering hole.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Nov. 2024
That doesn’t seem especially forbidden or debauched.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 17 July 2024
Instead, Mixtape Pluto is subterranean and nocturnal, hedonistic one minute and aching with regrets the next, debauched but wounded.
—Christopher R. Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for debauch
Verb
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Israeli forces are expected to continue their campaign to eliminate remaining Hamas leaders and degrade the group's military capabilities.—
Amir Daftari,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 May 2025
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Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time and can overheat if charged beyond their capacity and cause fires, according to FEMA’s U.S. Fire Administration.—
David Matthews,
New York Daily News,
28 May 2025
Verb
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To make matters worse, beyond unintentional biases, bad actors may corrupt AI technologies by feeding false or divisive information into AI training data.—
Corinne Post,
Forbes.com,
3 June 2025
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In one poignant conversation, Hoover described how the GDs needed to corrupt our youth.—
Ronald S. Safer,
Chicago Tribune,
30 May 2025
Verb
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As the film unfolds, Wilson finds out that Sterns, the movie's villain, has been the mastermind behind the entire plot and has been poisoning Ross with gamma rays via pills for years.—
Caroline Blair,
People.com,
28 May 2025
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Intermediately, because a member of Ethan’s team, Claire (Emmanuelle Béart) has poisoned Donloe, which results in Donloe having some pretty intense gastrointestinal reactions.—
Mike Ryan,
IndieWire,
27 May 2025
Verb
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An office that demands wisdom and restraint is now debased with churlish impulsivity, rambling incoherency and overt grift.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
11 May 2025
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At its most depraved level, this is get-rich-quick music; these artist-grifters are like sycophantic workers debasing themselves for the Big Boss Algorithm.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
21 May 2025
Verb
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Simone Inzaghi really needs the win here — his Italian side finished one point behind Serie A champ Napoli and was humiliated by rival AC Milan in the Coppa Italia semifinal.—
Steven Louis Goldstein,
New York Times,
31 May 2025
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And after Trump’s attempts to humiliate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, the lure of the White House is waning.—
Stephen Collinson,
CNN Money,
31 May 2025
Verb
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Bias, inaccuracies and missing values can all weaken model reliability.—
Tor Constantino,
Forbes.com,
3 June 2025
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Coercing democratic allies such as Canada or Denmark more broadly weakens trust in U.S. alliances; threatening Panama reawakens fears of imperialism throughout Latin America; crippling the U.S. Agency for International Development undercuts the United States’ reputation for benevolence.—
Robert O. Keohane,
Foreign Affairs,
2 June 2025
Verb
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In his eyes, a Jew who fails to share that outlook becomes the monster of traditional antisemitic lore: something perverted from its essential nature.—
Robert Helfand,
Hartford Courant,
21 May 2025
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The rule of law has been invoked and perverted in a concerted effort to undermine it.—
Mark A. Cohen,
Forbes.com,
12 May 2025
Verb
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Television ‘The Last of Us’ director on Ellie and Dina’s relationship: ‘This is not just a crush’ May 4, 2025 The stakes in Season 1 were very clear — get Ellie to where she can be used to make a cure — even if they were subverted in the end.—
Mary McNamara,
Los Angeles Times,
26 May 2025
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The chancellor’s attempt to seek your commission’s forgiveness years after deliberately avoiding your timely permission reads now like a cagey campaign to dodge his duties as steward of our knoll and subvert the relevant rule of law.—
Letters To The Editor,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Debauch.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debauch. Accessed 7 Jun. 2025.
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