embase
verb/ɪmˈbeɪs/
Etymology From em- + base. Compare Old French embaissier.
1
Obsolete To lower physically.
- [God had] Embast the valleys, and embost the hills.1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, translated by Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC:
2
Archaic To bring down or lower in position, status, etc.; to degrade, humiliate.
- And either vowd with all their power and witt To let not others honour be defaste Of friend or foe, who ever it embaste […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Such pitiful embellishments of speech as serve for nothing but to embase divinity.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
3
Archaic To lower the value of (a coin, commodity etc.); to debase (a coin) with alloy.
- Alloy in coin of gold […] may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Truth”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- embasement