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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Degenerated

Degenerate \De*gen"er*ate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Degenerated; p. pr. & vb. n. Degenerating.]

  1. To be or grow worse than one's kind, or than one was originally; hence, to be inferior; to grow poorer, meaner, or more vicious; to decline in good qualities; to deteriorate.

    When wit transgresseth decency, it degenerates into insolence and impiety.
    --Tillotson.

  2. (Biol.) To fall off from the normal quality or the healthy structure of its kind; to become of a lower type.

Wiktionary
degenerated

vb. (en-past of: degenerate)

Usage examples of "degenerated".

Carthage is now degenerated into the feeble and disorderly states of Tripoli and Tunis.

His cruelty, which at first obeyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became the ruling passion of his soul.

In a moment of discontent against the court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated, that his victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave ancestors, who had already subdued the mistress of the world.

In an age when the ecclesiastics had scandalously degenerated from the model of apostolic purity, the most worthless and corrupt were always the most eager to frequent, and disturb, the episcopal assemblies.

The exploits of Theodoric soon convinced the world that he had not degenerated from the warlike virtues of his ancestors.

But the prelates of France, long before the extinction of the Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting Barbarians.

The genius of Anthemius, and his colleague Isidore the Milesian, was excited and employed by a prince, whose taste for architecture had degenerated into a mischievous and costly passion.

I should be sorry to discover that Aristotle or Plato so far degenerated from the example of Socrates, as to exchange knowledge for gold.

The Arian clergy presumed to insinuate that he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers more loudly complained that he had degenerated from the courage, of his ancestors.

Before they touched the shores of Africa, this holy kindred degenerated into sensual love: and as Antonina soon overleaped the bounds of modesty and caution, the Roman general was alone ignorant of his own dishonor.

Justinian himself, whose vanity was incapable of discerning how often that submission degenerated into the grossest adulation.

But as the new practice of trusts degenerated into some abuse, the trustee was enabled, by the Trebellian and Pegasian decrees, to reserve one fourth of the estate, or to transfer on the head of the real heir all the debts and actions of the succession.

In every word, and in every action, the son of Nushirvan degenerated from the virtues of his father.

The subjects of the last caliphs had undoubtedly degenerated from the zeal and faith of the companions of the prophet.

They affected to deride the palaces, the banquets, the polished manner of the Italians, who in the estimate of the Greeks themselves had degenerated from the liberty and valor of the ancient Lombards.