DEPRAVITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does depravity mean? 

• DEPRAVITY (noun)
  The noun DEPRAVITY has 2 senses:

1. moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles

2. a corrupt or depraved or degenerate act or practice

  Familiarity information: DEPRAVITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEPRAVITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

corruption; degeneracy; depravation; depravity; putrefaction

Context example:

Rome had fallen into moral putrefaction

Hypernyms ("depravity" is a kind of...):

immorality (the quality of not being in accord with standards of right or good conduct)

Derivation:

deprave (corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality)

depraved (deviating from what is considered moral or right or proper or good)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A corrupt or depraved or degenerate act or practice

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

depravity; turpitude

Context example:

the various turpitudes of modern society

Hypernyms ("depravity" is a kind of...):

evildoing; transgression (the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle)

 Context examples 

He paused, open-mouthed, on the verge of the pit of his own depravity and utter worthlessness to breathe the same air she did.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I do not know whether it came from his own innate depravity or from the promptings of his master, but he was rude enough to set a dog at me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“We do also, unfortunately,” replied my father, “for indeed I had rather have been for ever ignorant than have discovered so much depravity and ungratitude in one I valued so highly.”

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

When I would come back from these excursions, I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If I may not be permitted to allude to the natural depravity of the human heart, at least I may—I must—be permitted, so far to refer to misplaced confidence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In her earnest meditations on the contents of the letter, on the depravity of that mind which could dictate it, and probably, on the very different mind of a very different person, who had no other connection whatever with the affair than what her heart gave him with every thing that passed, Elinor forgot the immediate distress of her sister, forgot that she had three letters on her lap yet unread, and so entirely forgot how long she had been in the room, that when on hearing a carriage drive up to the door, she went to the window to see who could be coming so unreasonably early, she was all astonishment to perceive Mrs. Jennings's chariot, which she knew had not been ordered till one.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Natural depravity, I suppose.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Wilfully and wantonly to have thrown off the companion of my youth, the acknowledged favourite of my father, a young man who had scarcely any other dependence than on our patronage, and who had been brought up to expect its exertion, would be a depravity, to which the separation of two young persons, whose affection could be the growth of only a few weeks, could bear no comparison.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It seemed to reveal to her an undreamed depravity in her nature.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The depravity of the human heart is such— “You will oblige me, ma'am,” interrupted Mr. Spenlow, “by confining yourself to facts.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)