Degenerate

Definition of Degenerate

De`gen´er`ate

a.	1.	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.
v. i.	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. [imp. & p. p. Degenerated; p. pr. & vb. n. Degenerating.] 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.
n.	1.	a person who has declined from a high standard, especially a sexual deviate; - usually used disparagingly or opprobriously of persons whose sexual behavior does not conform to the norms of accepted morals.
	2.	a person or thing that has fallen from a higher to a lower state, or reverted to an earlier type or stage of development or culture.

Related Words

abandoned, adulterate, alloy, alter, altered, apostate, apostatize, backslide, backslider, bad egg, bad lot, base, be changed, be converted into, be renewed, better, black sheep, bottom out, break, canker, change, changeable, changed, cheapen, checker, chop, chop and change, coarsen, come about, come apart, come around, come down, come round, coming apart, confound, contaminate, contaminated, converted, corrupt, corrupted, cracking, crumbling, debase, debased, debauch, debauched, debauchee, decadent, decay, decayed, declining, defect, defile, deflower, degrade, degraded, denature, deprave, depraved, descend, desecrate, desert, despoil, deteriorating, devalue, deviant, deviate, disimprove, disintegrate, disintegrating, dissolute, dissolve into chaos, distort, diverge, divergent, diversify, draining, drooping, dwindling, ebbing, effete, err, fading, failing, fall, fall back, fallen angel, falling, flagging, flagitious, flop, fragmenting, get worse, go astray, go downhill, go to pot, go wrong, going to pieces, grow worse, haul around, have a comedown, hit rock bottom, ignoble, improve, improved, infamous, infect, inferior, jibe, languishing, lapse, lecher, let down, lost sheep, lost soul, low, marcescent, meliorate, metamorphosed, metastasized, miscreant, misuse, mitigate, modified, modulate, morally polluted, mutant, mutate, nefarious, overripe, pervert, perverted, pimp, pining, poison, pollute, polluted, profligate, prostitute, qualified, rake, rakehell, ravage, ravish, reach the depths, rebuilt, recidivist, recreant, reformed, regress, regressive, relapse, renegade, renege, renewed, reprobate, retrograde, retrogress, retrogressive, return, revert, revive, revived, revolutionary, rot, rotten, roue, scapegrace, shift, shriveling, sicken, sink, sinking, slacken, sliding, slip, slip back, slipping, slumping, sorry lot, steeped in iniquity, subsiding, subversive, swerve, tabetic, tack, taint, tainted, take a turn, touch bottom, traitorous, transformed, translated, transmuted, treasonable, trip, trollop, turn, turn against, turn aside, turn into, turn the corner, turn traitor, twist, ulcerate, undergo a change, unhealthy, unmitigated, untune, vary, veer, vice-corrupted, vicious, vile, villainous, violate, vitiate, vitiated, vulgarize, waning, warp, warped, wasting, wastrel, whore, wilting, withering, worse, worsen, worsening

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Defrayment
defrock
defrost
defroster
deft
Deftly
Deftness
Defunct
Defunction
defunctive
defuse
defusing
defy
degage
degarnish
Degarnishment
degauss
degaussing
Degender
Degeneracy
-Degenerate-
Degenerately
Degenerateness
Degeneration
Degenerationist
Degenerative
Degenerous
Degenerously
Degerm
Degerminator
Deglaze
Deglazing
Degloried
Deglutinate
Deglutination
Deglutition
Deglutitious
Deglutitory
Degradation
Degradation of energy
Degrade

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