1832, Edgar Allan Poe, "Bon Bon":His large water-dog was acquainted with the fact, and upon the approach of his master, betrayed his sense of inferiority by a sanctity of deportment, a debasement of the ears, and a dropping of the lower jaw not altogether unworthy of a dog.
1912, Edith Wharton, The Reef, ch. 33:She had given herself to Darrow, and concealed the episode from Owen Leath, with no more apparent sense of debasement than the vulgarest of adventuresses.
2009, Gilbert Cruz, "The Many Faces of Addiction (Book review of America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life by Benoit Denizet-Lewis)," Time, 12 Jan.:There's something ugly and fascinating about reading such intimate tales of debasement and depression and failure and self-doubt.
The lowering of the value of a currency by reducing the amount of valuable metal in the coins.
