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WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2024de•gen•er•ate /v. dɪˈdʒɛnəˌreɪt; adj., n. -ərɪt/USA pronunciation v., -at•ed, -at•ing, adj., n. v. [ no obj] - to decline or get worse in personal qualities;
deteriorate:Idleness caused his character to degenerate. - [ ~ (+ into + obj)] to lower or become lower in quality;
fall from a high or normal standard.
adj. - having declined in personal qualities;
deteriorated;
degraded;
depraved:a degenerate ruler.
n. [countable] - a person who has declined, esp. in morals, from a standard:a drunken degenerate.
de•gen•er•a•cy /dɪˈdʒɛnərəsi/USA pronunciation n. [uncountable] de•gen•er•a•tion /dɪˌdʒɛnəˈreɪʃən/USA pronunciation n. [uncountable]physical degeneration. de•gen•er•a•tive /-ərətɪv, -əˌreɪtɪv/USA pronunciation adj. See -gen-. WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2024de•gen•er•ate (v. di jen′ə rāt′;adj., n. di jen′ər it),USA pronunciation v., -at•ed, -at•ing, adj., n. v.i. - to fall below a normal or desirable level in physical, mental, or moral qualities;
deteriorate:The morale of the soldiers degenerated, and they were unable to fight. - to diminish in quality, esp. from a former state of coherence, balance, integrity, etc.:The debate degenerated into an exchange of insults.
- Pathologyto lose functional activity, as a tissue or organ.
- Biology[Evolution.](of a species or any of its traits or structures) to revert to a simple, less highly organized, or less functionally active type, as a parasitic plant that has lost its taproot or the vestigial wings of a flightless bird.
v.t. - to cause degeneration in;
bring about a decline, deterioration, or reversion in.
adj. - having fallen below a normal or desirable level, esp. in physical or moral qualities;
deteriorated;
degraded:a degenerate king. - having lost, or become impaired with respect to, the qualities proper to the race or kind:a degenerate vine.
- characterized by or associated with degeneracy:degenerate times.
- Mathematicspertaining to a limiting case of a mathematical system that is more symmetrical or simpler in form than the general case.
- Physics
- Physics(of modes of vibration of a system) having the same frequency.
- Physics(of quantum states of a system) having equal energy.
n. - a person who has declined, as in morals or character, from a type or standard considered normal.
- a person or thing that reverts to an earlier stage of culture, development, or evolution.
- a sexual deviate.
- 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
- 1485–95
- 1.See corresponding entry in Unabridged worsen, decline, backslide, retrogress.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers:: degenerate vb /dɪˈdʒɛnəˌreɪt/(intransitive)- to become degenerate
- (of organisms or their parts) to become less specialized or functionally useless
adj /dɪˈdʒɛnərɪt/- having declined or deteriorated to a lower mental, moral, or physical level; debased; degraded; corrupt
n /dɪˈdʒɛnərɪt/- a degenerate person
Etymology: 15th Century: from Latin dēgenerāre, from dēgener departing from its kind, ignoble, from de- + genus origin, racedeˈgenerately adv deˈgenerateness n |