Degrade

See Cmminatb; Libbl, Sj Reinstate; Kehabilitate; Slander. DEGrREE.^ One of a series of progressive steps upward or downward; grade. ^ 1. A remove in the line of relationship. Levitical degrees. The degree of kinship,.set forth in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus, within which persons may not intermarry.* Adopted in English and American law generally. 2. The grades of guilt' or culpability attributed to the same offense committed under different circumstances: as, degrees of negligence, degrees in the law of arson or of murder, qq. V. When a defendant is charged with an offense which includes others of an inferior degree, the law of each degree which the evidence tends to prove should be given to the jury.^ 3. The rank to which a student who has attended a law-school is admitted among its alumni. "Whence bachelor of laws, doctor of cmil law, doctor of laws. Taken in course, or conferred for supposed attain^ ments, — the last named degree frequently so. At the inns of court degrees were formerly conferred in the common law upon barristers. Whence the expression "take " and " receive " a degree.