De·mean v. t. [imp. & p. p. Demeaned p. pr. & vb. n. Demeaning.]
 1. To manage; to conduct; to treat.
    [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.   --Milton.
 2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun.
 They have demeaned themselves
 Like men born to renown by life or death.   --Shak.
    They answered . . . that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.   --Clarendon.
 3. To debase; to lower; to degrade; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun.
    Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.   --Thackeray.
 Note: ☞ This sense is probably due to a false etymology which regarded the word as connected with the adjective mean.


 demeaning
      adj : causing awareness of your shortcomings; "golf is a humbling
            game" [syn: humbling, humiliating, mortifying]