DEGENERATE

I. adjective see: kin Date: 15th century 1. having declined or become less specialized (as in nature, character, structure, or function) from an ancestral or former state, having sunk to a condition below that which is normal to a type, degraded 2, being mathematically simpler (as by having a factor or constant equal to zero) than the typical case , characterized by atoms stripped of their electrons and by very great density , having two or more states or subdivisions , having more than one codon representing an amino acid, see: vicious ~ly adverb ~ness noun II. verb Date: 1545 intransitive verb to pass from a higher to a lower type or condition ; deteriorate , to sink into a low intellectual or moral state, to decline in quality , to decline from a condition or from the standards of a species, race, or breed, to evolve or develop into a less autonomous or less functionally active form , transitive verb to cause to ~, III. noun Date: 1555 one that is ~: as, one degraded from the normal moral standard, a sexual pervert, one showing signs of reversion to an earlier culture stage