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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Degenerate \De*gen"er*ate\, verb (used without an object) [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.
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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Degenerate \De*gen"er*ate\, adjective [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.
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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
degenerate \de*gen"er*ate\, noun
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
adjective: 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}]
noun: a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior [syn: {pervert}, {deviant}, {deviate}]
verb: 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, adjective 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.
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