Knock down a peg or two

Usage examples of demote.

Each time he is certain that his actions have demoted him to a new and permanent sublevel of paternal disregard.

Rod recognized him—the King's elder brother Anselm, attainted for treason, demoted to the rank of squire, and doomed to live out his life in obscurity.

These levelling times remain unfair, and commonise, demote, in such a civilised, cultivated countryside, what should be free from vulgar threat.

In the hubbub surrounding twelve-year-old Jake Ferguson, whose pornographic comic book business had turned the morally constipating experience of Scout camp into a lucrative and horizon-broadening enterprise, I was demoted to lesser-evil status.

If Colonel I was countermanding orders then it gave him the opportunity to break the man - to demote him and humiliate him.

Did she further sense that contemporary circumstances were demoting or declassing the poets, reducing their size, reducing their reach?

Now Baz was demoted, Tung apparently disgraced—what position in the mercenary fleet did Elena hold now?

It was at this point that he was demoted to the front legs of the donkey.

But he was so distracted by the sight of Kitty in the green dress he'd bought her that he totally ignored Rachel's repeated nods and was demoted to shifting scenery.

Or does he know I know what went on and that's why he got me in trouble, demoted, relocated, and all that?

When he had been demoted, Buck had considered the relocation from New York to Chicago a positive turn—he would get to see more of her, he'd be in a good church, get good training, have a core of friends.

When he had been demoted, Buck had considered the relocation from New York to Chicago a positive turn-he would get to see more of her, he'd be in a good church, get good training, have a core of friends.

That demoted the former closing act, Captain Hotspur and Madame Solitaire, to next-to-close.

Would you feel you had been demoted or rebuffed if I hired the Jászi brothers to replace you in the voltige?

True, the venerable Maximus seemed a little downcast at having been demoted from performer to prop, but he seemed almost grateful for his work having been eased without removing him from the pista, where he could still enjoy attention and applause, so he took his semiretirement graciously enough.