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DEGENERATE:

verb (intransitive) ( dɪˈdʒɛnəˌreɪt)
1.
to become degenerate
2.
(biology) (of organisms or their parts) to become less specialized or functionally useless
adjective (dɪˈdʒɛnərɪt)
3.
having declined or deteriorated to a lower mental, moral, or physical level; debased; degraded; corrupt

1485-95; < Latin dēgenerātus (past participle of dēgenerāre to decline from an ancestral standard), equivalent to dē de- + gener-, stem of genus race (see genus ) + -ātus -ate1; see generate
Related forms Expand
degenerately, adverb
degenerateness, noun
nondegenerate, adjective, noun
nondegenerately, adverb
nondegenerateness, noun

Synonyms Expand
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
1. worsen, decline, backslide, retrogress.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2017.
Cite This Source
Examples from the Web for degenerate Expand
Contemporary Examples
Then, with a grin, “And we all know how degenerate those people are.”

‘Mozart in the Jungle’: Inside Amazon’s Brave New World of Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music
Kevin Fallon
December 22, 2014
Being a fan of Liquid Sky carries the cachet of degenerate hipness to this day, 32 years after it was filmed.

Punks, UFOs, and Heroin: How ‘Liquid Sky’ Became a Cult Movie
Daniel Genis
June 1, 2014
He is a progenitor of what could be called the degenerate school of American fiction.

American Dreams: ‘Tobacco Road’ by Erskine Caldwell
Nathaniel Rich
April 29, 2012
If the states want to emulate casinos, degenerate, compulsive play is where the money is.

Online Casinos Run by New York, Other States Will Target Gambling Addicts
Josh Axelrad
January 3, 2012
The Guardian warns, in a page-wide headline, that it could degenerate into a fiasco of Suez 1956 proportions.

The Great Fallacy of Obama's War
M.J. Akbar
November 12, 2009
Historical Examples
We modify it in these degenerate days to "blood will have money:"

Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 9, 1870
Various
Domestic care, like every other, is liable to degenerate into excess.

Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. II
Francis Augustus Cox
Yet these country-people are no more corrupt or degenerate than the townspeople.

The Sexual Question
August Forel
It is the idleness, luxury and corruption of large cities which cause it to degenerate.

The Sexual Question
August Forel
He disliked her child, the little Charles Rougon, who was degenerate and weak-minded.

A Zola Dictionary
J. G. Patterson

British Dictionary definitions for degenerate Expand
degenerate
verb (intransitive) ( dɪˈdʒɛnəˌreɪt)
1.
to become degenerate
2.
(biology) (of organisms or their parts) to become less specialized or functionally useless
adjective (dɪˈdʒɛnərɪt)
3.
having declined or deteriorated to a lower mental, moral, or physical level; debased; degraded; corrupt
4.
(physics)
(of the constituents of a system) having the same energy but different wave functions
(of a semiconductor) containing a similar number of electrons in the conduction band to the number of electrons in the conduction band of metals
(of a resonant device) having two or more modes of equal frequency
5.
(of a code) containing symbols that represent more than one letter, figure, etc
6.
(of a plant or animal) having undergone degeneration
noun (dɪˈdʒɛnərɪt)
7.
a degenerate person
Derived Forms
degenerately, adverb
degenerateness, noun
Word Origin
C15: from Latin dēgenerāre, from dēgener departing from its kind, ignoble, from de- + genus origin, race

Word Origin and History for degenerate Expand
adj.
late 15c., from Latin degeneratus, past participle of degenerare "to be inferior to one's ancestors, to become unlike one's race or kind, fall from ancestral quality," used of physical as well as moral qualities, from phrase de genere, from de + genus (genitive generis) "birth, descent" (see genus ). The noun is from 1550s.

v.
1540s, from Latin degeneratus, past participle of degenerare "fall from ancestral quality" (see degenerate (adj.)). Figurative sense of "to fall off, decline" was in Latin. Related: Degenerated ; degenerating.
degenerate in Medicine Expand
degenerate de·gen·er·ate (dĭ-jěn'ər-ĭt)
adj.

Characterized by degeneration, as of tissue, a cell, or an organ.

Having lost one or more highly developed functions, characteristics, or structures through evolution.

v. de·gen·er·at·ed , de·gen·er·at·ing , de·gen·er·ates (-ə-rāt')
To undergo the process of degeneration.