Definitions for Degenerate
dɪˈdʒɛn əˌreɪt; -ər ɪtde·gen·er·ate

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. pervert, deviant, deviate, degenerateadjective

   a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior

2. debauched, degenerate, degraded, dissipated, dissolute, libertine, profligate, riotous, fastverb

   unrestrained by convention or morality

   "Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women"

3. devolve, deteriorate, drop, degenerateverb

   grow worse

   "Her condition deteriorated"; "Conditions in the slums degenerated"; "The discussion devolved into a shouting match"

GCIDERate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. degeneratenoun

   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. degeneratenoun

   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

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. degeneratenoun

   One is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature.

   You are a degenerate, boy. You're a disgrace to your ancestors.

2. degenerateverb

   (of humans or systems) to lose good or desirable qualities;

   His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.

3. degenerateadjective

   (of qualities) having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to an undesirable and typically abnormal

4. degenerateadjective

   (of a human or system) having lost good or desirable qualities

5. degenerateadjective

   (of an encoding or function) having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range

   The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.

6. degenerateadjective

   a degenerate case is a limiting case in which a class of object changes its nature so as to belong to another, usually simpler, class.

7. degenerateadjective

   Having the same quantum energy level

8. Etymology: From degeneratus, past participle of degenerare, from degener, from de + genus; see genus, general.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Degenerateadverb

   Etymology: from the verb.

   1. Unlike his ancestors; fallen from the virtue and merit of his ancestors.

   Thou art like enough
   To fight against me under Piercy’s pay;
   To dog his heels, and curt’sy at his frowns,
   To show how much thou art degenerate. William Shakespeare, Hen. IV.

   Yet thou hast greater cause to be
   Asham’d of them, than they of thee;
   Degenerate from their ancient brood,
   Since first the court allow’d them food. Jonathan Swift.

   2. Unworthy; base.

   So all shall turn degen’rate, all deprav’d;
   Justice and temperance, truth, and faith forgot!
   One man except. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. xi. l. 806.

   When a man so far becomes degenerate as to quit the principles of human nature, and to be a noxious creature, there is commonly an injury done some person or other. John Locke.

2. To DEGENERATEverb

   Etymology: degenerare, Lat. degenerer, Fr. degenerar, Spanish.

   1. To fall from the virtue of ancestors.2. To fall from a more noble to a base state.

   When wit transgresseth decency, it degenerates into insolence and impiety. John Tillotson, Sermon 2.

   3. To fall from its kind; to grow wild or base.

   Most of those fruits that use to be grafted, if they be set of kernels or stones, degenerate. Francis Bacon, Natural History, №. 510.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. degenerate

   Degenerate is typically used as an adjective to describe something or someone that has declined or deteriorated in terms of standards, quality, or vitality. In a broader sense, it can refer to something that has lost its distinctive or beneficial characteristics or become atypical and low-grade. In biological terms, "degenerate" can refer to an organ or tissue that has lost its functionality or structure. In physics and mathematics, it denotes conditions or solutions that are equivalent or identical despite being represented in different forms.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Degenerateadjective

   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

2. Degenerateverb

   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

3. Degenerateverb

   to fall off from the normal quality or the healthy structure of its kind; to become of a lower type

4. Etymology: [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.]

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Degenerate

   de-jen′ėr-āt, adj. having departed from the high qualities of race or kind: become base—also Degen′erous (obs.).—v.i. to fall from a nobler state: to be or to grow worse.—v.i. Degen′der (Spens.), to degenerate.—ns. Degen′eracy, Degenerā′tion, the act or process of becoming degenerate: the state of being degenerate.—adv. Degen′erately.—n. Degen′erateness.—adj. Degen′erating.—n. Degenerā′tionist, one who believes that the tendency of man is not to improve, but to degenerate.—adj. Degen′erative, tending or causing to degenerate. [L. degenerāre, -ātum, to depart from its kind—de, from, down, genus, genĕris, kind.]

How to pronounce Degenerate?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Degenerate in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Degenerate in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Degenerate in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of Degenerate in a Sentence

1. Theodore Roosevelt:

   I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master.

2. John Walsh:

   Mets fans are more degenerate.

3. John Adams:

   [D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.

4. Václav Havel:

   Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system as its own involuntary master plan, as a degenerate image of its own degeneration, as a record of people's own failure as individuals.

5. Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu:

   It is not the young people that degenerate they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Degenerate
2. ^ GCIDE
   https://gcide.gnu.org.ua/?q=Degenerate
3. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Degenerate
4. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Degenerate
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Degenerate
7. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=Degenerate