a. | 1. | 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. |
v. i. | 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. |
2. | (Biol.) To fall off from the normal quality or the healthy structure of its kind; to become of a lower type. | |
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. |
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. |
Noun | 1. | degenerate - a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior |
Verb | 1. | degenerate - grow worse; "Her condition deteriorated"; "Conditions in the slums degenerated"; "The discussion devolved into a shouting match" |
Adj. | 1. | degenerate - unrestrained by convention or morality; "Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic society"; "deplorably dissipated and degraded"; "riotous living"; "fast women" |