Degeneration
Degeneration , noun
[Compare French dégénération.]
1.
The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.
Our degeneration and apostasy.
2.
(Physiology) 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.
(Biology) A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
4.
The thing degenerated. [Rare]
Cockle, aracus,... and other degenerations.