Degeneration

·noun The thing degenerated.

II. Degeneration ·noun The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.

III. Degeneration ·noun A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.

IV. Degeneration ·noun 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.