VOCABULARY BUILDER
deprecate
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form: -cated ; -cating
Etymology: Latin deprecatus, past participle of deprecari to avert by prayer, from de- + precari to pray — more at PRAY
Date: 1628
1 a archaic : to pray against (as an evil) b : to seek to avert <deprecate the wrath…of the Roman people — Tobias Smollett>
2 : to express disapproval of
3 a : PLAY DOWN : make little of <speaks five languages…but deprecates this facility — Time> b : BELITTLE, DISPARAGE <the most reluctantly admired and least easily deprecated of…novelists — New Yorker>
–deprecatingly adverb
–deprecation noun