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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
deprave
verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But our cravings may not be as depraved as they seem - they start out as healthy needs in our childhood.
▪ She drank no alcohol and thought most forms of seasoning depraved.
▪ The ludicrously voluminous Inner notes read like a parody of depraved academicism.
▪ Who's the most depraved character you've apprehended?
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Deprave

Deprave \De*prave"\ (d[-e]*pr[=a]v"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Depraved (d[-e]*pr[=a]vd"); p. pr. & vb. n. Depraving.] [L. depravare, depravatum; de- + pravus crooked, distorted, perverse, wicked.]

  1. To speak ill of; to depreciate; to malign; to revile.

    And thou knowest, conscience, I came not to chide Nor deprave thy person with a proud heart.
    --Piers Plowman.

  2. To make bad or worse; to vitiate; to corrupt.

    Whose pride depraves each other better part.
    --Spenser.

    Syn: To corrupt; vitiate; contaminate; pollute.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
deprave

late 14c., "corrupt, lead astray, pervert," from Old French depraver (14c.) or directly from Latin depravare "distort, disfigure;" figuratively "to pervert, seduce, corrupt," from de- "completely" (see de-) + pravus "crooked." Related: Depraved; depraving.

Wiktionary
deprave

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To speak ill of; to depreciate; to malign; to revile 2 (context transitive English) To make bad or worse; to vitiate; to corrupt

WordNet
deprave

v. corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; "debauch the young people with wine and women"; "Socrates was accused of corrupting young men"; "Do school counselors subvert young children?"; "corrupt the morals" [syn: corrupt, pervert, subvert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch, debase, profane, vitiate, misdirect]

Usage examples of "deprave".

Edmond, simple Cordula, fantastically intricate Lucette, and, by further mechanical association, a depraved little girl called Lisette, in Cannes, with breasts like lovely abscesses, whose frail favors were handled by a smelly big brother in an old bathing machine.

Some warped, depraved minion of fate was having a regular horselaugh over it, to be sure.

Gayarla would point out that it was you and I who lost a daughter to those unnatural, depraved war maids, which clearly proves who was the superior parent.

The habit is unscientific, for it is well known that alcohol deranges the functions of the digestive organs and depraves the blood, besides creating a morbid appetite.

But when he bestows on any man the epithets of VICIOUS or ODIOUS or DEPRAVED, he then speaks another language, and expresses sentiments, in which he expects all his audience are to concur with him.

Indeed, the laws of Honus Hasta destroyed not only the criminal, but all the members of his family, so that there was none to transmit to posterity the criminal inclinations of a depraved sire.

And turning to the other I sayd, You perhappes that are of an obstinate minde and grosse eares, mocke and contemme those things which are reported for truth, know you not that it is accounted untrue by the depraved opinion of men, which either is rarely seene, seldome heard, or passeth the capacitie of mans reason, which if it be more narrowly scanned, you shall not onely finde it evident and plaine, but also very easy to be brought to passe.

Malipiero's draw-room, one evening, when my opinion about her was asked, that she could please only a glutton with depraved tastes.

Many of the depraved recombinations were incapable of erect ambulation, having blindly conjoined with limbs of too great disparity—or fused arms to knees, thighs to shoulders.

Had not almost every man suffered by the Press, or were not the tyranny thereof become universal, I had not wanted reason for complaint: but in times wherein I have lived to behold the highest perversion of that excellent invention, the name of his Majesty defamed, the Honour of Parliament depraved, the Writings of both depravedly, anticipatively, counterfeitly imprinted.

I know them, yea,And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple,--Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys,That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander,Go anticly, show outward hideousness,And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst.

I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple, -- Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys, That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander, Go anticly, show outward hideousness, And speak off half a dozen dangerous words, How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst.

For two years Madame was herded among the most depraved of her sex, but thanks to the urgency of the Champignelles and the Beauseants she was, after the second year, placed in a cell by herself, where she lived like a cloistered nun.

If they drew too much attention to themselves, Chamal and Falina might be taken away by the guards, for depraved sport.

Neither praise nor money, the two powerful corrupters of mankind, seem to have depraved her.