vt. 使降级;使降职
demote 使降职
de-, 向下。-mot, 移动,词源同motive, promote. 即向下移动,降职。
Regarding an antithesis to 'promote,' the word universally in use in Cambridge, in Harvard College, is drop. The same word is in use in the leading schools here (Boston). I hope I may be counted every time against such barbarisms as 'demote' and 'retromote.' [Edward Everett Hale, 1892, letter to the publishers of "Funk & Wagnalls' Standard Dictionary"]Related: Demoted; demoting.