Degenerate

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Faint-hearted and degenerate king.       --Shak.
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           A degenerate and degraded state.         --Milton.
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           Degenerate from their ancient blood.     --Swift.
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           These degenerate days.                   --Pope.
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           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.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              When wit transgresseth decency, it degenerates into
              insolence and impiety.                --Tillotson.
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     2. (Biol.) To fall off from the normal quality or the healthy
        structure of its kind; to become of a lower type.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  degenerate \de*gen"er*ate\, 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.
        [PJC]
  
     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. --RHUD
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  degenerate
       adj : unrestrained by convention or morality; "Congreve draws a
             debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated
             and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women" [syn: {debauched},
              {degraded}, {dissipated}, {dissolute}, {libertine}, {profligate},
              {riotous}, {fast}]
       n : a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable
           especially in sexual behavior [syn: {pervert}, {deviant},
            {deviate}]
       v : grow worse; "Her condition deteriorated"; "Conditions in the
           slums degenerated"; "The discussion devolved into a
           shouting match" [syn: {devolve}, {deteriorate}, {drop}]
           [ant: {recuperate}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  234 Moby Thesaurus words for "degenerate":
     abandoned, adulterate, alloy, alter, altered, ameliorate, 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, decline, declining, defect, defile,
     deflower, degrade, degraded, denature, deprave, depraved, descend,
     desecrate, desert, despoil, deteriorate, 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,
     weaken, whore, wilting, withering, worse, worsen, worsening
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  DEGENERATE, adj.  Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. 
  The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it
  required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes
  of the Trojan war could have raised with ease.  Homer never tires of
  sneering at "men who live in these degenerate days," which is perhaps
  why they suffered him to beg his bread -- a marked instance of
  returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he
  would certainly have starved.