Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To diminish or impair in quality, character, or value: Time and neglect had deteriorated the property.
- v. To grow worse; degenerate: The weather deteriorated overnight. His health had deteriorated while he was in prison.
- v. To weaken or disintegrate; decay: The nation's highways are deteriorating at a rapid pace.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make worse; reduce in quality; lower the essential character or constitution of: as, to deteriorate a race of men or their condition.
- To grow worse; be or become impaired in quality; degenerate.
Wiktionary
- v. To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair.
- v. To grow worse; to be impaired in quality; to degenerate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair.
- v. To grow worse; to be impaired in quality; to degenerate.
WordNet 3.0
- v. grow worse
- v. become worse or disintegrate
Etymologies
- Late Latin dēteriōrāre, dēteriōrāt-, from Latin dēterior, worse; see de- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“On a alternative hand, if we wish to buy shad in deteriorate (March-May) as good as prepare it during home, a place to get it is in Bridgeton.”
“The dirt heats up earlier in deteriorate as good as stays warmer for longer during a finish of a season, to illustrate extending a altogether flourishing window.”
“One area in which economic change has caused values to deteriorate is business, Clive Crook argues.”
“They should be saving snakes, not the fifth syllable of deteriorate, which isn't going to keep vermin under control in any paddy fields.”
The Guardian: Snakes are evil, but save your venom for the self-appointed language police
“His economy is continuing to deteriorate, which is a big part of the reason that we've seen all the outflow of migrants over the last few weeks.”
“Moreover: The theory of equality in the long run would seem to require that some deteriorate, which is extremely unlikely, in view of the fact that the normal law of God's universe is advancement.”
“A net 58% expect business conditions overall to deteriorate, which is up from 44% last month.”
WN.com - Articles related to Natural gas: fuel of the future
“Sunday opened with nice but shifty winds from the West at 8-11kts but it was spotty, the National Yacht Club RC jumped on the opportunity and banged off two good races before the wind started to really deteriorate, that is all we could get for the day.”
“They will shake their heads and ask how; we allowed our language to "deteriorate," taking our culture with it.”
“Although I have yet to see any kind of digital media 'deteriorate' so maybe it's not as bad as some people would make it seem...”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deteriorate’.
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