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Demean   /dɪmˈin/   Listen
verb
Demean  v. t.  (past & past part. demeaned; pres. part. demeaning)  
1.
To manage; to conduct; to treat. "(Our) clergy have with violence demeaned the matter."
2.
To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun. "They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death." "They answered... that they should demean themselves according to their instructions."
3.
To debase; to lower; to degrade; followed by the reflexive pronoun. "Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter." Note: This sense is probably due to a false etymology which regarded the word as connected with the adjective mean.


noun
Demean  n.  
1.
Management; treatment. (Obs.) "Vile demean and usage bad."
2.
Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor. (Obs.) "With grave demean and solemn vanity."


Demean  n.  
1.
Demesne. (Obs.)
2.
pl. Resources; means. (Obs.) "You know How narrow our demeans are."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Demean" Quotes from Famous Books



... of gout closes with a short and characteristic chapter entitled "Emperica," in which he remarks: "Although I perhaps demean myself somewhat in making any reference to empirical remedies, yet it is well to write them in a new book, that the work may not be lacking in what the ancients (antiqui) have said on the subject. Accordingly I quote the words of Torror. ...
— Gilbertus Anglicus - Medicine of the Thirteenth Century • Henry Ebenezer Handerson
... any such thing!" cried Nan, hastening to defend her sex. "It isn't because I'm afraid that I don't go straight up to the—the person. It's because I have too much pride. I wouldn't demean myself by letting ...
— The Governess • Julie M. Lippmann
... up in the river, the ducks and geese are migrating, and it is time for you to prepare to go in clay.' He then rubs his person over with a whitish clay, and is sent off to the hill-top at sunrise, previously instructed by a warrior what to say, and how to demean himself in the presence of the Master of Life. From this elevation he cries out to the great Wahconda, humming a melancholy tune, and calling on him to have pity on him, and make him a great hunter, ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones
... the assembly had courage to enforce this act of violence, and blazing with fury, he poured his whole wrath upon Wallace. "Imperious, arrogant traitor!" cried he; "this presumption only deepens our impression of your guilt! Demean yourself with more reverence to this august court, or expect to be sentenced on the proof which such insolence amply gives; we require no other to proclaim your domineering spirit, and at once to condemn you as the premeditated tyrant ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter
... blame the men. 'Of course,' she said, 'the real fault is the women's, or would be if they knew what's decent. But you can't expect anything of them; they've had no nurture.' That was her word. So being a just child, she has to wonder how Englishmen 'with nurture' can so demean themselves to get money. In short, my friend, your daughter—for love of us both maybe—is taking our picturesqueness too honestly. She inclines to find a merit of its own in poverty. It is high time ...
— Brother Copas • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch


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