1. The act of becoming degenerate; a growing worse.
Willful degeneracy from goodness.
Tillotson. 2. The state of having become degenerate; decline in good qualities; deterioration; meanness.
Degeneracy of spirit in a state of slavery.
Addison.
To recover mankind out of their universal corruption and degeneracy.
S. Clarke. Degenerate
(De*gen"er*ate) a. [L. degeneratus, p. p. of degenerare to degenerate, cause to degenerate,
fr. degener base, degenerate, that departs from its race or kind; de- + genus race, kind. See Kin
relationship.] Having become worse than one's kind, or one's former state; having declined in worth; having
lost in goodness; deteriorated; degraded; unworthy; base; low.
Faint-hearted and degenerate king.
Shak.
A degenerate and degraded state.
Milton.
Degenerate from their ancient blood.
Swift.
These degenerate days.
Pope.
I had planted thee a noble vine . . . : how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange
vine unto me?
Jer. ii. 21. Degenerate
(De*gen"er*ate) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Degenerated; p. pr. & vb. n. Degenerating.]
1. To be or grow worse than one's kind, or than one was originally; hence, to be inferior; to grow poorer,
meaner, or more vicious; to decline in good qualities; to deteriorate.
When wit transgresseth decency, it degenerates into insolence and impiety.
Tillotson. 2. (Biol.) To fall off from the normal quality or the healthy structure of its kind; to become of a lower
type.
Degenerately
(De*gen"er*ate*ly) adv. In a degenerate manner; unworthily.
Degenerateness
(De*gen"er*ate*ness), n. Degeneracy.
Degeneration
(De*gen`er*a"tion) n. [Cf. F. dégénération.]
1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.
Our degeneration and apostasy.
Bates. 2. (Physiol.) That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or
perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver.
3. (Biol.) A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular
organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
4. The thing degenerated. [R.]
Cockle, aracus, . . . and other degenerations.
Sir T. Browne. Amyloid degeneration, Caseous degeneration, etc. See under Amyloid, Caseous, etc.
