downgrading

Verb

downgrade (third-person singular simple present downgrades, present participle downgrading, simple past and past participle downgraded)

1. To place lower in position.
   • The stock was downgraded from ‘buy’ to ‘sell’.

   Antonyms:

   upgrade

2. To reduce in complexity, or remove unnecessary parts; to dumb down.
   • More significantly, rigid deference to [Justin] Bieber’s still-young core fan base keeps things resolutely PG, with any acknowledgement of sex either couched in vague “touch your body” workarounds or downgraded to desirous hand-holding and eye-gazing.2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2020
3. (transitive) To disparage.
   • We cannot afford to downgrade the lifestyles of other lesbians; we cannot afford to portray lesbians thinly as drunken and bothersome separatists who push their views on "work-within-the-movement" dykes".1978 April 29, Cindy Rizzo, “Unity of Divergence”, in Gay Community News, page 4

   Synonyms:

   degrade, demote, defame, reduce, abase, bring down to size, cut down to size, debase, demean, depress

4. to reduce the official estimate of a storm's intensity.
5. To revert software back to an older version.

   Synonyms:

   restore, revert, roll back, deconvert, reconvert, rehabilitate, restitute

See all 8 meanings of downgrade