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

degenerate \degen"erate\, 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.
   1913 webster

         a degenerate and degraded state.         --milton.
   1913 webster

         degenerate from their ancient blood.     --swift.
   1913 webster

         these degenerate days.                   --pope.
   1913 webster

         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.
   1913 webster
see also:
kin 

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

degenerate \degen"erate\, 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.
      1913 webster

   2. biol. to fall off from the normal quality or the healthy
      structure of its kind; to become of a lower type.
      1913 webster
see also:
degenerated degenerating 

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

degenerate \degen"erate\, 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

[4] : WordNet (r) 2.0

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
see also:
debauched degraded dissipated dissolute libertine profligate 
riotous fast pervert deviant deviate 
devolve deteriorate drop recuperate 

[5] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

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

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

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.

Degenerate >> D Words
Degenerate, definition of term: Degenerate
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