Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Becoming reduced or degraded in type; degenerating.
Etymologies
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Examples
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Insignis venatorum stultitia, et supervacania cura eorum, qui dum nimium venationi insistunt, ipsi abjecta omni humanitate in feras degenerant, ut Acteon, &c. 1873.
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Willdenow states that "radices peloriæ, solo sterili plantatæ, degenerant in Linariam," ( 'Sp. Plant.,' iii, p. 254); but this opinion is counterbalanced by that of others, while the frequent existence of both forms on the same plant, at the same time, seems to negative the supposition of any direct effect from external circumstances.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Cetera similes, uno differunt, quod femina dominatur; in tantum non modo a libertate, sed etiam a servitute degenerant.
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Præterea ut palato et gustu differunt convivæ, ita judiciis dissident lectores, neque omnium idem de rebus sensus est, hoc præsertim tempore, quo plures sunt librorum judices, quam lectores, et è lectoribus in lictores, ubique virgas et secures expedituros, multi degenerant. '
Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance Thomas Frognall Dibdin 1811
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* omaque degenerant fuccos oblita priorcsj St turpis ayibus praedam fert uva racemos.
P. Virgilii Maronis opera: emendabat et notulis illustr. G. Wakefield Virgil, Publius Vergilius Maro 1796
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