Sentence:  This childhood of mine had caused me to grow up with a dislike of forms, conventions, habits, routines and all the modes of life that encouraged the mind to slip out of gear and idle like a <WSD>degeared</WSD> engine, while the body lived through its days and nights automatically. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To remove or disable the gears (transmission or interlocking gears).