deprecate

From Latin deprecatus, past participle of deprecari (“to pray against (a present or impending evil), pray for, intercede for (that which is in danger), rarely imprecate”), from de (“off”) + precari (“to pray”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛpɹɪkeɪt/, IPA^(key): /ˈdɛpɹəkeɪt/
• Hyphenation: dep‧re‧cate

deprecate (third-person singular simple present deprecates, present participle deprecating, simple past and past participle deprecated)

1. (transitive) To belittle or express disapproval of.

   He deprecates any praise of his own merits.

   They deprecated the attempt to deny aid to homeless people.

   She deprecated any action which might disturb the peace.

2. (transitive, chiefly computing) To declare something obsolescent; to recommend against a function, technique, command, etc. that still works but has been replaced.

   The bold tag has been deprecated in favour of the strong tag.

   It is still supported but strongly deprecated.

3. (transitive, archaic) To pray against.
   • 1701, Nehemiah Grew, Cosmologia Sacra, London: W. Rogers, S. Smith, and B. Walford, page 126:

     And in deprecating of Evil, we make an humble Acknowledgement of Guilt; and of God’s Juſtice in chaſtizing, as well as Clemency, in ſparing the Guilty.

   • 1712, George Smalridge, “A Sermon, Preach’d at the Royal Chapel at St. James’s on Wedneſday, January the 16th, 1711/12”, London: Jonah Bowyer, page 18:

     […] , though the Temporal Judgments which We Deprecate, are not remov’d.

4. (transitive, archaic) To regret deeply.

• Do not confuse with depreciate (“to decline in value”).

• self-deprecating

• deprecation

• deprecate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• deprecate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• deprecate at OneLook Dictionary Search

deprecate

1. second-person plural present tense and imperative of deprecare

dēprecāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēprecō