deprecate

Borrowed from Latin dēprecātus, perfect active participle of dēprecor (“to pray against (a present or impending evil) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), pray for, intercede for (that which is in danger), rarely imprecate”), from dē- (“off”) +‎ precor (“to pray”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛpɹɪkeɪt/, /ˈdɛpɹəkeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛp.rɪˌkeɪt/
• Hyphenation: dep‧re‧cate

deprecate (third-person singular simple present deprecates, present participle deprecating, simple past and past participle deprecated)

1. (transitive) To express disapproval of, protest or plead against.

   Synonyms: disparage, denounce; see also Thesaurus:criticize

   Antonyms: recommend, endorse

   They deprecated the attempt to deny aid to homeless people.

   She deprecated any action which might disturb the peace.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Return to Courtenaye Hall”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 150:

     He spoke of Ethel continually; entreated her to forgive him; deprecated her coldness; and implored her to retract her refusal.

2. (transitive) To belittle, depreciate.

   Synonyms: deprecate, disparage, make light of; see also Thesaurus:trivialize

   Antonyms: praise, commend; see also Thesaurus:exaggerate, Thesaurus:glorify

   He deprecates any praise of his own merits.

   • 2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes‎^[1], page 295:

     Prior to the 1980s, Australian English had been widely deprecated by Australians themselves, principally as a result of a sense of inferiority known as "cultural cringe".

3. (transitive, chiefly computing) To declare something obsolescent; to recommend against a function, technique, command, etc. that still works but has been replaced.

   Synonyms: disrecommend, unprescribe

   The 'bold' tag has been deprecated in favour of the 'strong' tag.

   It is still supported but strongly deprecated.

   • 2003, Dave Evans et al., Perl, CGI, and JavaScript Complete, Sybex, →ISBN:

     A deprecated function works in the currently released version of Perl 5 but may not be supported in future releases of Perl 5.

4. (archaic, transitive) To pray against.
   • 1701, Nehemiah Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, London: W. Rogers, S. Smith, and B. Walford, page 126:

     And in deprecating of Evil, we make an humble Acknowledgement of Guilt; and of God’s Juſtice in chaſtizing, as well as Clemency, in ſparing the Guilty.

   • 1712, George Smalridge, A Sermon, Preach’d at the Royal Chapel at St. James’s on Wedneſday, January the 16th, 1711/12, London: Jonah Bowyer, page 18:

     […] , though the Temporal Judgments which We Deprecate, are not remov’d.

5. (archaic, transitive) To regret deeply.

   Synonyms: repent, rue; see also Thesaurus:lament

• Do not confuse with depreciate (“decline in value / disparage”), despite the fact that AHD4 states that deprecate has almost completely supplanted depreciate. Using "deprecate" in the sense of "to disparage, belittle" is sometimes condemned as a confusion of two different words.

• deprecation

• discontinue

• “deprecate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “deprecate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “deprecate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

deprecate

1. second-person plural present and imperative of deprecare

dēprecāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēprecō

deprecate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of deprecar combined with te