Definition of "deprecatory" [dep•re•ca•to•ry]

• Expressing disapproval or criticism. (adjective)
• Mildly disparaging or uncomplimentary, especially of oneself. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "As the handsome and distinguished-looking bridegroom stood before the altar awaiting the entrance of his bride, it were almost sacrilege to utter a word deprecatory or otherwise."
• "A flaccid, unwholesome-looking hand was raised slowly, in a kind of deprecatory gesture; then allowed to fall again upon the belly where it lay, with the five fingers, round and chalky-white, extended like the rays of a starfish."
• "A gravely sedate demeanour would have seemed the more fitting facial expression for his age and the generally accepted nature of his calling, -- a kind of deprecatory toleration of the sunshine as part of the universal 'vanity' of mundane things, -- or a condescending consciousness of the bursting apple-blossoms within his reach as a kind of inferior earthy circumstance which could neither be altered nor avoided."