degenerate
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
sciences
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin dēgenerātus. See -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.
Affixes: -ate
Inflected forms:
form: more degenerate
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most degenerate
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: degenerates
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: degenerates
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: degenerating
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: degenerated
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: degenerated
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.
pos: adj
gloss: Having lost good or desirable qualities; hence also having bad character or habits, base, immoral, corrupt.
pos: adj
examples: faint-hearted and degenerate king
But what can Cato do
Againſt a World, a baſe degenerate World,
That courts the Yoke, and bows the Neck to Cæſar?
As you grew more degenerate and base, I sent you millions of the croaking race
If my boy is not tempted to gamble at a fashionable card party he will never learn from the degenerate, blackleg gamblers in the joint.
The author explores the gap between the degenerate, elitist society of the domes and the working population. He criticizes the world of luxury and ease that easily ignores the sufferings of the majority.
What are the odds that an alcoholic and degenerate gambler with no money management skills could survive in a city that ate addicts for lunch and dreams for dinner?
gloss: Having lost functionality in general.
pos: adj
examples: It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.
gloss: Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.
pos: adj
examples: The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.
gloss: Qualitatively different, usually simpler, than typical objects of its class.
pos: adj
examples: A degenerate circle, having radius zero, consists of a single point.
We now apply the geometrical construction explained in the appendix to the degenerate triangle ABC.
gloss: Having multiple different (linearly independent) eigenvectors.
pos: adj
gloss: Having the same quantum energy level.
pos: adj
gloss: One who is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature; an immoral or corrupt person.
pos: noun
examples: In the cult of degenerates, acts of decency, kindness and modesty could be seen as acts of apostasy.
The undeveloped or mysterically confused thought which exists in savages is fully exemplified in the childish or crazy atavistic anthropomorphism and symbolism so prevalent among degenerates.
gloss: To lose good or desirable qualities.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.
Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated, and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.
The haploid ovum is now called an ootid (Fig. 8—7). The second polar body degenerates, sometimes dividing before it dies.
Cumaratunga was so furious that he intensified his campaign for revitalizing the traditional practices of asweddumization, so that neglected arable land could be rehabilitated, and a degenerating economy restructured and rejuvenated.
gloss: To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Related words: regenerate
ungenerate
Derived words: degenerate conic
degenerately
degenerate matrix
degenerate matter
degenerateness
degenerative
hemidegenerate
neutron-degenerate matter
nondegenerate
non-degenerate
undegenerate
degeneration
neurodegenerated
neurodegenerating
nondegenerated
undegenerated
undegenerating
Translations: