downgrade

noun

1. A reduction of a rating, as a financial or credit rating.
2. A downhill gradient on a road or railway.

   “[...] dynamic braking is fitted to the 99-ton, 55 ft.-long locomotives to help control these otherwise vacuum-braked trains on the long, continuous downgrades encountered on the coastal route.”

3. A reduction in quality; a descent towards an inferior state.

   “Near-synonyms: degradation, worsening, deterioration”

verb

1. To place lower in position.

   “The stock was downgraded from ‘buy’ to ‘sell’.”

   “Basingstoke-Exeter will test this. From Salisbury westwards, it's largely single-track since British Rail downgraded it in 1967. There's a ten-mile loop between Templecombe and Yeovil, as well as shorter loops at Chard, Axminster and Honiton.”

2. To reduce in complexity, or remove unnecessary parts; to dumb down.

   “More significantly, rigid deference to [Justin] Bieber’s still-young core fan base keeps things resolutely PG, with any acknowledgement of sex either couched in vague “touch your body” workarounds or downgraded to desirous hand-holding and eye-gazing.”

3. (transitive)To disparage.

   “We cannot afford to downgrade the lifestyles of other lesbians; we cannot afford to portray lesbians thinly as drunken and bothersome separatists who push their views on "work-within-the-movement" dykes".”

   “Without downgrading my friends in the Building Trades, driving a nail or sawing a board is relatively simple.”

4. to reduce the official estimate of a storm's intensity.
5. To revert software back to an older version.