denegrate

Verb

denigrate (third-person singular simple present denigrates, present participle denigrating, simple past and past participle denigrated)

1. (transitive) To criticize so as to besmirch; traduce, disparage or defame.
   • What grand engines they were! Yet I have noticed a disposition on the part of quite a diversity of present-day commentators to denigrate those engines.1960 May, O. S. Nock, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 343

   Synonyms:

   badmouth, besmirch, slander, assassinate, asperse, backbite, befoul, belibel, besmear, bewray

2. (transitive) To treat as worthless; belittle, degrade or disparage.
   • You have no right to denigrate people and things that you have no personal experience with.

   Synonyms:

   banalize, deprecate, make light of, bagatellize, belittle, cut down, de-emphasize, degrade, derogate, disparage

3. (rare, transitive, literal) To blacken.

   Synonyms:

   black, forswart, nigrify, blacken, black up, blackwash, blatch, bletch, infuscate, pitch

See all 4 meanings of denigrate