deprave
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: verb/1
All four verbs describe making someone or something worse, but deprave specifically targets moral character at a deep level — it suggests a lasting corruption of a person's sense of right and wrong. Corrupt is the broadest and most neutral term, usable for anything from data to officials, while deprave is reserved for evil or wicked moral decay. Debase focuses on lowering quality or value (e.g., debasing the currency) and does not necessarily carry a moral judgement. Pervert implies twisting something away from its natural or proper purpose (e.g., perverting justice), whereas degrade emphasises a loss of dignity or status. In practice, a dictator's regime might deprave its citizens' moral sense, debase the national culture, pervert the legal system, and degrade public institutions — each verb highlighting a different facet of the decline.
Common collocations
Etymology
Deprave comes from the Latin verb depravare, meaning 'to distort or corrupt'. This was formed from the prefix de- ('down, away') and pravus ('crooked, bad'). The word entered English in the 1300s, first carrying the sense of physical distortion and later shifting to moral corruption, which is its only modern meaning.
First known use
14th century
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1