different between degraded vs lewd

English

Etymology

See degrade and compare French degré (“step”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d????e?d?d/

Adjective

degraded (comparative more degraded, superlative most degraded)

1. Feeling or having undergone degradation; deprived of dignity or self-respect.

   • The Netherlands […] were reduced, practically, to a very degraded condition.

2. (biology) Having the typical characters or organs in a partially developed condition, or lacking certain parts.
   • 1852, James Dwight Dana, Crustacaea

     The Grapsoid species are represented of a degraded form in Porcellana

3. (heraldry, not comparable) Having steps; said of a cross whose extremities end in steps growing larger as they leave the centre; on degrees.

Synonyms

• (deprived of dignity): humiliated

Translations

Verb

degraded

1. simple past tense and past participle of degrade

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English lewed, lewd, leued (“unlearned, lay, lascivious”), from Old English l?wede (“unlearned, ignorant, lay”), of obscure origin; most likely a derivative of the past participle of l?wan (“to reveal, betray”) in the sense of "exposed as being unlearned" or "easily betrayed, clueless", from Proto-Germanic *l?wijan? (“to betray”), from *l?w? (“an opportunity, cause”), from Proto-Indo-European *l?w- (“to leave”). Or, according to the OED, from Vulgar Latin *laigo-, from Late Latin laicus (“of the people”).

Cognate with Old High German gil?en, firl?en (“to betray”), Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (gal?wjan, “to give over, betray”), Gothic ???????????? (l?w, “an opportunity, cause”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lju?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /lud/
• enPR: lo?od

• Rhymes: -u?d

• Homophone: leud

Adjective

lewd (comparative lewder, superlative lewdest)

1. Lascivious, sexually promiscuous, rude.
   • 2014 August 11, w:Dave Itzkoff, "Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Comedian, Dies at 63 in Suspected Suicide," New York Times

     Onstage he was known for ricochet riffs on politics, social issues and cultural matters both high and low; tales of drug and alcohol abuse; lewd commentaries on relations between the sexes; and lightning-like improvisations on anything an audience member might toss at him.

2. (obsolete) Lay; not clerical.
   • 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum

     So these great clerks their little wisdom show / To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they.

3. (obsolete) Uneducated.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Again?t venemous tongues enpoy?oned with ?claunder and fal?e detractions &c.:

     My ?coles are not for unthriftes untaught,
     For frantick faitours half mad and half ?traught;
     But my learning is of another degree
     To taunt theim like liddrons, lewde as thei bee.

4. (obsolete) Vulgar, common; typical of the lower orders.

   • But the Jews, which believed not, […] took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, […] and assaulted the house of Jason.

   • 1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More; or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society

     Too lewd to work, and ready for any kind of mischief.

5. (obsolete) Base, vile, reprehensible.

Derived terms

• lewdsby
• lewdness
• lewdster

Translations

Noun

lewd (plural lewds)

1. A sexually suggestive image, particularly one which does not involve full nudity.
   • 1944, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 217, page 25:

     Nudes, lewds and smutty outhouse cards, although they can be bought in some of the rowdy joints, are a negligible percentage of the total, and are unobtainable in the chain stores, drugstores and travel stations which are the outlets for […]

   • 1996, Cigar Aficionado, page 309:

     […] also put it, he learned “the difference between nudes and lewds."

Verb

lewd (third-person singular simple present lewds, present participle lewding, simple past and past participle lewded)

1. To express lust; to behave in a lewd manner.

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Etymology 2

Verb

lewd (third-person singular simple present lewds, present participle lewding, simple past and past participle lewded)

1. (slang) Alternative form of lude (“take the drug quaalude”)

Anagrams

• Weld, weld

Middle English

Adjective

lewd

1. Alternative form of lewed