"degrades" in the verb sense
1. degrade
reduce the level of land, as by erosion
2. take down, degrade, disgrace, demean, put down
reduce in worth or character, usually verbally
"She tends to put down younger women colleagues"
"His critics took him down after the lecture"
3. degrade, cheapen
lower the grade of something reduce its worth
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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