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Definition of belittling : of Belittle

Synonyms:

deprecation, scornful, depreciative, deprecating, slighting, denigratory, defamation, disparaging, deprecatory, aspersion, depreciatory, derogative, pejorative, derisory, contemptuous, slander, demeaning, deprecative, disdainful, denigrative, detractive, uncomplimentary, decrying, calumny, denigration

cutting, reducing, depreciating, shaving, trimming, cheapening, debasing, discounting, paring, slashing, diminishing, devaluating, marking down, deflating, degrading, devaluing

underestimating, undervaluing

compacting, clipping, condensing, lowering, shortening, abridging

Usage examples:

• They do not expect that the free right to vote, to enjoy civic rights, and to be educated, will come in a moment; they do not expect to see the bias and prejudices of years disappear at the blast of a trumpet; but they are absolutely certain that the way for a people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing them away and insisting that they do not want them; that the way for a people to gain respect is not by continually belittling and ridiculing themselves; that, on the contrary, Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys. - "The Souls of Black Folk", W. E. B. Du Bois.
• Do you know- I'll tell you everything now- do you know I really believe- and the human soul is so peculiarly constituted- I believe that when my artistic successes seemed about to put her in the shadow- as well as her reputation- then I tried to put courage into her by belittling myself, and by making my own art seem inferior to hers. - "Plays by August Strindberg, Second series", August Strindberg.
• He wasn't belittling their deadly danger. - "Lords of the Stratosphere", Arthur J. Burks.