downgrade

Related topics: Employment

down·grade /ˈdaʊnɡreɪd/ verb [transitiveT]

1. BEto make a job less important, or to move someone to a less important job 降低〔某职位〕的重要性；降〔某人〕的职 OPP upgrade

2 UNIMPORTANTto make something seem less important or valuable than it is 低估，轻视

Police often downgrade the seriousness of violence against women in the home.

警方往往低估妇女所受家庭暴力的严重性。

3 to state that something is not as serious as it was 宣布〔某事〕不那么严重，使降级

Hurricane Bob has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

飓风 “鲍勃” 已被降级为热带风暴。

Examples from the Corpus

downgrade• After the merger, many reporters were reassigned or downgraded.• Does this mean that history is to be downgraded?• For them community service may be downgraded as work for lesser scholars or as something that everyone already accepts.• Economic advisers in Washington have been discussing whether to downgrade foreign loans.• I get the impression that opposition teams have unconsciously downgraded Leeds because of the last twelve months and are caught off guard.• The professor claims that the government is deliberately downgrading scientific research.

From Longman Business Dictionary

downgradedown·grade /ˈdaʊngreɪd/ verb [transitiveT]

1to give something less importance, for example by spending less money on it or reducing its value

The drug company is planning to downgrade some of its products from prescription status.

2HUMAN RESOURCESto make someone’s job less important or well-paid than it was before

Eighty-eight middle managers had been made redundant, downgraded or fired.

Services have been reduced and temporary contracts are being used to downgrade or replace qualified staff.

→ compare upgrade1

3ECONOMICS to reduce an amount or value that you had calculated or guessed

Analysts downgraded four-year profit projections and exposed the fledgling company to the harsher side of stockmarket life.

The company’s long-term debt-rating has been downgraded from triple-A to double-A-2.

→ compare upgrade1

—downgrade noun [countableC]

profit downgrade

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus

BNC: 15817 COCA: 16410

downgrade

To promote or demote someone: advancement, aggrandise, aggrandisement...