degeneration Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the process of declining from a higher to a lower level of effective power or vitality or essential quality
    devolution.
  2. noun the state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities
    decadence; decadency; degeneracy.
  3. noun passing from a more complex to a simpler biological form
    retrogression.

WordNet

De*gen`er*a"tion noun
Etymology
Cf. F. dégénération.
Definitions
  1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.
    Our degeneration and apostasy. Bates.
  2. (Physiol.) That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver.
  3. (Biol.) A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
  4. The thing degenerated. R.
    Cockle, aracus, . . . and other degenerations. Sir T. Browne.

Webster 1913