• (British) IPA: /dɪˈmiːn/

demean (demeans, present participle demeaning; past and past participle demeaned)

1. To debase; to lower; to degrade.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 6:

     It was, of course, Mrs. Sedley's opinion that her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.

2. To humble, humble oneself; to humiliate.
3. To mortify.

• debase
• lower
• degrade

• German: herabwürdigen, entwürdigen, erniedrigen, herabsetzen

demean (demeans, present participle demeaning; past and past participle demeaned)

1. To manage; to conduct; to treat.
   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica

     But now, as our obdurate clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.

2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iv]:

     they have demean'd themselves
     Like men born to renown by life or death.

   • They answered […] that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.

• German: erniedrigen, herabwürdigen, herabsetzen
• Italian: svilire
• Spanish: degradar, menospreciar, humillar

• German: kleinmachen, demütigen, erniedrigen

• German: beschämen

• German: behandeln, führen
• Spanish: conducir, gestionar

• German: benehmen, verhalten, führen, aufführen

demean (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Management; treatment.

   • vile demean and usage bad

2. (archaic) Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.5:

     ‘When thou hast all this doen, then bring me newes / Of his demeane […].’

   • with grave demean and solemn vanity

• demeanor

demean (plural demeans)

1. demesne.
2. resources; means.