deprave

"I don't think you should censor books but there is this strange anomaly - it's common sense that films can deprave and corrupt, and that books can't."

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2012

It has been 14 years since China officially banned console video games, worrying the living-room boxes would dumb down or deprave the brains of Chinese youth.

From Washington Post

The legal definition of obscenity in Great Britain is that which tends "to deprave and corrupt."

From Time Magazine Archive

On the contrary it would so deprave our currency that it would bring ruin, particularly to the wage earners of the country and those on fixed salaries.

From Time Magazine Archive

Accordingly, also, this history could be called the history of the people, of their faults, their excesses, occasionally even of their crimes Slavery, ignorance and misery often deprave man in degrading him.

From The Galley Slave's Ring or The Family of Lebrenn. A Tale of The French Revolution of 1848 by Sue, Eug?ne

She furthermore held that hereditary rule depraves the best dispositions, and produces the monsters that have horrified the world.

From The Branding Needle, or The Monastery of Charolles A Tale of the First Communal Charter by Sue, Eugène

As to real gallantry, the French style depraves the minds of men least, ours is most favorable to the peace of families.

From The History of Emily Montague by Brooke, Frances

This faculty is more liable to perversion than any other, and excessive eating occasions more sickness, and depraves the animal faculties more than all other causes combined.

From The Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology by Fowler, L. N.

At the same time the State depraves those who govern.

From Anarchism by Eltzbacher, Paul

Should I select something that shows how war depraves, or something that shows how it ennobles?

From Pebbles on the shore [by] Alpha of the plough by Gardiner, A. G. (Alfred George)

He also accused Donaldson of telling lies many times over the years and added, he never imagined the former party leader could have been so "depraved".

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026

Yet its parties, even at their most decadent and depraved, were never quite cool.

From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2026

Intimately acquainted with Richard’s malignity, these ruined royals know only too well the toll of his depraved machinations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026

In actuality, “The Housemaid” is about as depraved and delicious as a mainstream film can get, packed with narrative twists and guffaw-worthy choices from everyone involved.

From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2026

She began to cry, her depraved face breaking into an infant’s grimace; and they moved away from her, leaving her dirty in a dirty room, alone to face her Maker.

From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin

I sought to make her conceive of our nation as a family, where every one was secured against want by the common provision, and against the degrading and depraving inequality which comes from want.

From Through the Eye of the Needle A Romance by Howells, William Dean

Better to devote one’s self to a useful and humble profession than employ one’s talent in depraving morals, and degrading souls.

From Elements of Morals With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the State by Janet, Paul

There may be slaveries so soft as to invite the base and pusillanimous, but they are more rather than less depraving than cruelties to all that makes honorable and useful manhood.

From The Subterranean Brotherhood by Hawthorne, Julian

Item, that she rails on men in authority, depraving their honours with bitter jests and taunts; and that she's a backbiter, setting strife betwixt bosom friends.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 9 by Various

In the resulting degradation the woman has the largest share, since it makes her a pariah and involves her in all the hardening and depraving influences of social ostracism.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Ellis, Havelock