[de.gen.er.a.tion] n (15c) 1: degenerate condition
2: a lowering of effective power, vitality, or essential quality to an enfeebled and worsened kind or state
3: intellectual, moral, or artistic decline
4. a: progressive deterioration of physical characters from a level representing the norm of earlier generations or forms b: deterioration of a tissue or an organ in which its function is diminished or its structure is impaired syn see deterioration