From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdowngradedown‧grade /ˈdaʊnɡreɪd/ verb [transitive] 1 BEto make a job less important, or to move someone to a less important job OPP upgrade2 UNIMPORTANTto make something seem less important or valuable than it is Police often downgrade the seriousness of violence against women in the home.3 to state that something is not as serious as it was Hurricane Bob has been downgraded to a tropical storm.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
downgrade• After the merger, many reporters were reassigned or downgraded.• Does this mean that history is to be downgraded?• For them community service may be downgraded as work for lesser scholars or as something that everyone already accepts.• Economic advisers in Washington have been discussing whether to downgrade foreign loans.• I get the impression that opposition teams have unconsciously downgraded Leeds because of the last twelve months and are caught off guard.• The professor claims that the government is deliberately downgrading scientific research.From Longman Business Dictionarydowngradedown‧grade /ˈdaʊngreɪd/ verb [transitive]1to give something less importance, for example by spending less money on it or reducing its valueThe drug company is planning to downgrade some of its products from prescription status.2HUMAN RESOURCESto make someone’s job less important or well-paid than it was beforeEighty-eight middle managers had been made redundant, downgraded or fired.Services have been reduced and temporary contracts are being used to downgrade or replace qualified staff. → compare upgrade13ECONOMICS to reduce an amount or value that you had calculated or guessedAnalysts downgraded four-year profit projections and exposed the fledgling company to the harsher side of stockmarket life.The company’s long-term debt-rating has been downgraded from triple-A to double-A-2. → compare upgrade1 —downgrade noun [countable]profit downgrade→ See Verb table 