0 past simple and past participle of belittle
1 to make a person or an action seem as if he, she or it is not important:
A trendy cynicism in this period also belittled the idea that we could or should try to improve people's lives through design.
If great events stemmed from minor, even accidental, events, then the great and the good were belittled.
Hypocritical politicians and conceited moralists had belittled national values and in the counter-narrative belonged to the stigmatised enemies.
But whereas the classical ethologists had the explicit goal of spreading their discipline, comparative psychologists generally belittled theirs.
This cannot be denied, nor should public and voluntary sector programs intended to alleviate the ensuing disadvantage and suffering be belittled.
Tennyson's grandfather, who did not consider poetry enough of a serious calling to establish a fortune, belittled his grandson's very promising gifts.
Whilst norms of masculinity might be to blame for this situation in the case of male fans, more evidence is needed to prove this because female fans are also belittled.
To fashion a coherent composition incorporating such borrowings required skill that listeners today may be better prepared to appreciate than were nineteenth- and twentieth-century commentators who belittled such works.
