"debases" in the verb sense
1. corrupt, pervert, subvert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch, debase, profane, vitiate, deprave, misdirect
corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
"debauch the young people with wine and women"
"Socrates was accused of corrupting young men"
"Do school counselors subvert young children?"
"corrupt the morals"
2. debase, alloy
lower in value by increasing the base-metal content
3. load, adulterate, stretch, dilute, debase
corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance often by replacing valuable ingredients with inferior ones
"adulterate liquor"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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