belittle

1. (transitive) To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is, especially as a way of showing contempt or deprecation.Examples: "Don't belittle your colleagues."; "An essential part of any German campaign is obviously the efficiency of its lines of communication and therefore it is dangerous to belittle our enemy's strength in this direction."; "Under the rules as understood by the New York Times, the West is free to mock and belittle its Judeo-Christian inheritance, and, likewise, the Muslim world is free to mock and belittle the West's Judeo-Christian inheritance."Synonyms: understate, make light of, denigrate, degrade, deprecate, disparage, downplay, play downAntonyms: exaggeratetransitive

2. (transitive) To make small.Examples: "Now, the big blue space of river and sky belittled him, ulled him back into bewildered childhood."transitive