Definition of Degenerate

Defenceless

DEGENERATE adjective

	Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at 'men who live in these degenerate days,' which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread -- a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved.

		definition from: *The Devil's Dictionary* by Ambrose Bierce, 1911

Degradation

Regular definition:

DEGENERATE:
?. ?n.d??d?en?r?t adj., n., & v. --adj. 1 having lost the qualities that are normal and desirable or proper to its kind; fallen from former excellence. 2 Biol. having changed to a lower type. --n. a degenerate person or animal. --v.intr. become degenerate. øødegeneracy n. degenerately adv. [L degeneratus past part. of degenerare (as DE-, genus -eris race)]

Last updated: 9/3/2011 12:48:30