<p><strong>Verb (used without object)</strong></p><ul><li>degenerated, degenerating: to fall below a normal or desirable level in physical, mental, or moral qualities; deteriorate</li><li>to diminish in quality, especially from a former state of coherence, balance, integrity, etc.</li><li>Pathology: to lose functional activity, as a tissue or organ</li><li>Evolution: (of a species or any of its traits or structures) to revert to a simple, less highly organized, or less functionally active type</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used with object)</strong></p><ul><li>degenerated, degenerating: to cause degeneration in; bring about a decline, deterioration, or reversion</li></ul><p><strong>Adjective</strong></p><ul><li>having fallen below a normal or desirable level, especially in physical or moral qualities; deteriorated; degraded</li><li>having lost, or become impaired with respect to, the qualities proper to the species or kind</li><li>characterized by or associated with degeneracy</li><li>Mathematics: pertaining to a limiting case of a mathematical system that is more symmetrical or simpler in form than the general case</li><li>Physics: (of modes of vibration of a system) having the same frequency</li><li>(of quantum states of a system) having equal energy</li></ul><p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>a person who has declined, as in morals or character, from a type or standard considered normal</li><li>a person or thing that reverts to an earlier stage of culture, development, or evolution</li><li>a sexual deviate</li></ul>