disparage

1. obsoleteuncountableInequality in marriage; marriage with an inferior.

   But, for his meane degree might not aspire / To match so high, her friends with counsell sage / Dissuaded her from such a disparage […]

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

present singular third person disparages · participle present disparaging · participle past disparaged · past disparaged

1. obsoleteTo match unequally; to degrade or dishonor.

   Alas! that any of my nation Should ever so foul disparaged be.

   1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; Charles Cowden Clarke, editor, The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. […], 2nd edition, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: James Nichol; London: James Nisbet & Co.; Dublin: W. Robertson, 1860, →OCLC

2. To dishonor by a comparison with what is inferior; to lower in rank or estimation by actions or words; to speak slightingly of; to depreciate; to undervalue.

   August 30, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet those forbidding appearances which sometimes disparage the actions of men sincerely pious

   1 more example

   Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms.

   1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

   Synonyms: denigrate, belittle, vilipend, abase, bring down to size, cut down to size, debase, defame

3. To ridicule, mock, discredit.

   Had he disparaged my personal appearance I should in all probability have laughed at him with lively indifference

   1878, Mrs. Forrest-Grant, Riversdale Court: A Novel

   Synonyms: befool, excoriate, lampoon, scorn, befool, chaff, forgab, frump