Adjectival form of "degrade"?

Question

For example, I want to say:

This book degrades Western culture.

In this form:

This book has been described as ??? to Western culture.

What would the adjectival form be? Is "degradeful" a word, or is there something better?

Answer 1

The commonest way of employing a verb as an adjective with an active sense—that is, with the sense that the noun modified is something which performs the action of the verb—is to use the present participle: the -ing form:

This book has been described as degrading to Western culture.

Likewise, the commonest way of employing a verb as an adjective with a passive sense , in which the noun modified is something which suffers the action of the verb, is to use the past participle:

Degraded Western culture is incapable of responding to the literary glories of the classics.