How to Use degenerate in a Sentence

degenerate

1 of 3 adjective

• He criticizes what he believes is a degenerate society.
• Of the two, Y tends to get more attention because of its small, degenerate size.
  — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 11 July 2010
• The Young Man and Woman are chased away by degenerate sinners: a prostitute, a knight, a wet nurse, a priest, and God himself.
  — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Sep. 2017
• There is not enough room in this column — hell, in this newspaper — to explain how much of a degenerate Steve Flemmi is.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2021
• Who ever said that if the fusion happened six million years ago, the DNA there should not be degenerate or diverged?
  — Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 23 July 2012
• Regina, who puts on airs while spouting phrasebook French, wants nothing to do with her degenerate dad.
  — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2022
• Absinthe, even for the destitute and degenerate in the late 1800s, was always taken with water.
  — Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 1 Oct. 2022
• Instead, the death of the last star marks the beginning of the degenerate era, the epoch of our universe that will occupy quintillions of years (each quintillion is a billion billion years).
  — Popular Mechanics, 7 Mar. 2023
• Chazelle probably named Babylon not for the ancient empire but for the other meaning of the word: a degenerate society.
  — Vulture, 28 Nov. 2022
• One courageous teacher, Herr Kraus, had shown the teen work by artists the Nazis had banned as degenerate — some of the great expressionists, surrealists, and abstract artists of the 20th century.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 26 May 2021
• The Nazis viewed French culture as degenerate and dangerous but also as a useful distraction to keep Parisians from rebelling.
  — Timothy Schaffert, WSJ, 23 July 2021
• No sooner had news of the crime broken than the nationalist, anti-Semitic press began to extenuate and even to praise it as a blow against degenerate Jewish thought.
  — Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2020
• There was a glorious point in the ‘90s when Matt Damon seemed only to play unassuming boy genius to his degenerate friends, and Rounders is arguably his finest portrayal of the golden boy archetype.
  — Keith Nelson, Men's Health, 30 Apr. 2022
• Instead of rejecting Ji-Yoon’s degenerate boyfriend, her father sees him safely home.
  — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 21 Aug. 2021
• Franco does double duty as Vincent and his twin, the more degenerate Frankie, but Frankie feels like an unnecessary addition.
  — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 7 Sep. 2017
• This idea suggests that there are degenerate assemblies for each behavior, even in the same situation.
  — Dean Mobbs, Scientific American, 20 Sep. 2019
• One of the longest-running of these figures is Coppertone Jones, a degenerate gambler created and played by artistic director Matthew Posey.
  — Manuel Mendoza, Dallas News, 11 Sep. 2020
• Today, our politics labors under the petty twin tyrannies of moralism and tribalism, the degenerate cousins of ethics and community.
  — Fred Bauer, National Review, 20 Oct. 2017
• Perhaps that’s because while the statue of David is all about perfectly proportional muscles and rippling abs, Durden looked both powerful and degenerate.
  — Brett Williams, Men's Health, 27 Sep. 2022
• The only Crow who is prospering, perhaps predictably, is our beloved, sharpshooting, degenerate gambler.
  — Devon Maloney, Vulture, 24 Apr. 2021
• The book was a best-seller, but Harding’s friends and the Republican establishment denounced it as fiction and attacked Britton viciously, calling her a degenerate home-wrecker.
  — Elaine Weiss, WSJ, 31 May 2018
• While many Republicans are embracing the fringe cultural positions emerging from this radical and elite milieu, pushing the view that America is a degenerate society that cannot be saved, elements of the left may have learned their lesson.
  — Graham Gallagher, The New Republic, 25 Nov. 2022
• The welfare state can eradicate poverty by distributing income to all non-workers — or Manchin can falsely smear poor people as degenerate drug addicts and protect rich people (like himself, incidentally) from higher taxes.
  — Ryan Cooper, The Week, 20 Dec. 2021
• The degenerate primer design problem: theory and applications.
  — Ashton Yoon, Discover Magazine, 28 Mar. 2017
• The small secondhand window air conditioner whose acquisition one of us finally permitted after years of insisting that air-conditioning was a degenerate indulgence.
  — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 15 Sep. 2020
• Although psychological substance runs slim, Akin renders most mainstream depictions of degenerate minds lighthearted.
  — Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2019
• He criticizes what he believes is a degenerate society.
• Of the two, Y tends to get more attention because of its small, degenerate size.
  — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 11 July 2010
• The Young Man and Woman are chased away by degenerate sinners: a prostitute, a knight, a wet nurse, a priest, and God himself.
  — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Sep. 2017
• There is not enough room in this column — hell, in this newspaper — to explain how much of a degenerate Steve Flemmi is.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2021

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degenerate

2 of 3 verb

• The right temporal lobe in the brain is the last area to degenerate.
  — John Benson, cleveland, 12 Nov. 2020
• And his hiring did help degenerate the standing of the White House just a little bit, too, thanks to the statement that announced it.
  — Graeme McMillan, WIRED, 6 May 2018
• These are the fine-lines to be walked and explored, since one or the other extremes can degenerate into crimes of their own.
  — Vipin Bharathan, Forbes, 2 Jan. 2022
• The system could become a remnant low or degenerate into a trough by the middle of next week.
  — Hannah Leyva, USA TODAY, 24 June 2023
• This is due to atresia, the ASRM explains, or the natural process through which follicles that house eggs in the ovaries degenerate and die.
  — Natasha Lavender, SELF, 22 Aug. 2019
• Your instinct here is to loll, sprawl, degenerate, create crumbs.
  — James Parker, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2022
• Her brain, in a rare reaction to the cancer, is degenerating.
  — Sharon Coolidge, Cincinnati.com, 1 Nov. 2017
• In mammals, it has been shown that overall egg quality may degenerate as the mother ages (ref).
  — Grrlscientist, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2022
• But the Tezos project has now degenerated into chaos, with the project's founders locked in litigation with the foundation that is supposed to oversee the project.
  — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, 22 Feb. 2018
• The hurricane center said Rose should also degenerate into a remnant low in the next few days.
  — Leigh Morgan, al, 22 Sep. 2021
• Replacement of the degenerating joints isn’t an option for a goose.
  — Karen Weintraub, New York Times, 29 June 2018
• His muscles and bones had degenerated and his skin had extensive wounds, with a deep infection on his back right leg.
  — Tom Odula, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Mar. 2018
• The event would quickly degenerate into brawls, just what some of the Proud Boys had anticipated.
  — New York Times, 14 Mar. 2021
• Sloppy Carl Bernstein, a man who lives in the past and thinks like degenerate fool, making up story after story, is being laughed at all over the country.
  — Fox News, 29 Aug. 2018
• The depression is forecast to become a remnant low or degenerate into a open wave tonight.
  — Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 7 July 2017
• That idea has been kicking around since at least the 1950s but has never overcome a key objection: degenerating brains might just be more inviting to pathogens than healthy brains.
  — Sharon Begley, STAT, 21 June 2018
• But don't expect a human-monkey species running around; Wu said by day 20, all the embryos will degenerate or collapse.
  — Asha C. Gilbert, USA TODAY, 15 Apr. 2021
• As the confrontation threatened to degenerate, the delegation left and told the volunteers to postpone work for the time being.
  — Longreads, 5 Apr. 2018
• The disease causes the motor neurons that control muscle movements to degenerate, the ALS Assn.
  — Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2022
• Managers can’t afford to sit back and let debate degenerate.
  — Sally Percy, Forbes, 25 Jan. 2022
• The run-up to those elections was marked by town halls that degenerated often into minor riots.
  — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 13 Apr. 2017
• By the end of 2011, the protests had degenerated into a sectarian civil war.
  — The Economist, 28 June 2018
• These are the symptoms, not the cause, of Canada’s degenerating democracy.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 26 Oct. 2019
• The movie is about a lavish hunting party on a large estate that degenerates into a colossal brawl, which seems to have some connection to the huntsman image.
  — Thomas Hine, Philly.com, 3 May 2018
• Let the Millennials wallow (or degenerate) in their love-work fest.
  — Carolyn Chen, CNN, 4 June 2022
• An old hamstring injury and degenerating discs in her back had teamed up to steal her mobility.
  — Deborah E. Kennedy, Good Housekeeping, 3 May 2019
• By Tuesday, the storm is forecast to degenerate but could still produce some gusty winds and heavy rain over Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
  — Jason Samenow, Washington Post, 8 July 2018
• Holcomb’s vision degenerated to the point that he was convinced that his bobsled career was ending, and his mood quickly turned bleak.
  — The Associated Press, New York Times, 6 May 2017
• However, the system is likely to weaken early Sunday and degenerate to a remnant low by late Sunday.
  — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 1 Sep. 2023
• By the time Emma’s former handler (Connie Nielsen) shows up at their home with goons in tow and orders her to kill her husband, the storyline has degenerated from mildly amusing black comedy to silly action-movie tropes.
  — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Jan. 2024

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degenerate

3 of 3 noun

• To the researchers at the Ahnenerbe, bog bodies were the remains of degenerates who had betrayed the ancient code.
  — Christian Als, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
• To the researchers at the Ahnenerbe, bog bodies were the remains of degenerates who had betrayed the ancient code.
  — Christian Als, Smithsonian, 29 May 2017
• I was told bisexuals were degenerates who are selfish and just want the best of both worlds.
  — Rosemary Donahue, Allure, 2 July 2017
• Well, for degenerate gamblers like yours truly, a shot down seven points as time expires can be just as sweet.
  — Max Meyer, SI.com, 18 Mar. 2018
• Waterford thinks gay people are degenerate and would string McCullough up at the wall back home in Gilead.
  — Rena Gross, Billboard, 13 June 2018
• Adam Sandler plays a lying degenerate gambler in Uncut Gems, which in its sordid candor turns out to be one of the grabbiest films of the year.
  — Kyle Smith, National Review, 11 Dec. 2019
• Those who suffer from this madness will do anything, even toss democratic principles into the trash bin or vote for a moral degenerate like Roy Moore, to safeguard their illusion.
  — Eddie S. Glaude, Time, 13 Dec. 2017
• In a handsome catalog accompanying the show, curator Lynette Roth notes that only about a quarter of the more than 100 artists declared degenerate left the country.
  — M.j. Andersen, WSJ, 18 Apr. 2018
• In his iconic 1975 thriller High-Rise, a luxury apartment complex degenerates when its residents take up arms against each other, prompted by nothing but disputes over clogged garbage chutes.
  — Becca Rothfeld, The New Republic, 14 Mar. 2018
• The activities often took place at cast members’ ancestral plantations, but sometimes — and this is how Bonaparte, who is not a degenerate, comes in — at Bonaparte’s restaurants.
  — Anna Peele, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2021
• When someone has Alzheimer's disease, the person's brain cells that retrieve, process and store information degenerate and die, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
  — Kristen Rogers, CNN, 30 Aug. 2021
• Griswold effectively fashioned the portrait of the artist as an erratic degenerate.
  — New York Times, 24 Mar. 2022
• Besides, too great a concern with origin degenerates too easily into a concern with purity, and folklore is most impure.
  — Kevin Young, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2019
• Not just for dog owners, this fundraiser party offers athletes and degenerates alike a chance to try many local brews, meet some canine companions and support one of the region’s leading animal service organizations.
  — Sameer Rao, baltimoresun.com, 1 Oct. 2019
• By successfully propping up the degenerate Assad regime, the Kremlin gained veto on any possible political solution to Syria and got a meaningful foothold in the broader region.
  — Fox News, 18 July 2018
• We’re done with the college football season, with the exception of Army-Navy, the playoffs, and the exhibitions sponsored by various interchangeable corporations that exist only to satisfy the urges of degenerate gamblers.
  — Gary Gramling, SI.com, 10 Dec. 2017
• On Sunday we were reintroduced to the Hilltop, a place of relative plenty — including lots of food, an obstetrician and apparently a big ol’ tractor — overseen by a sniveling degenerate named Gregory.
  — Jeremy Egner, New York Times, 20 Nov. 2016
• For once, women whom mainstream society habitually ignored were being represented in pop culture as individuals with virtues and flaws, rather than as a monolithic mass of degenerates or vixens.
  — Time, 22 July 2019
• Charm City’s favorite unregenerate degenerate appreciated the shout-out.
  — Chris Kaltenbach, baltimoresun.com, 12 Mar. 2018
• To the researchers at the Ahnenerbe, bog bodies were the remains of degenerates who had betrayed the ancient code.
  — Christian Als, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
• To the researchers at the Ahnenerbe, bog bodies were the remains of degenerates who had betrayed the ancient code.
  — Christian Als, Smithsonian, 29 May 2017
• I was told bisexuals were degenerates who are selfish and just want the best of both worlds.
  — Rosemary Donahue, Allure, 2 July 2017
• Well, for degenerate gamblers like yours truly, a shot down seven points as time expires can be just as sweet.
  — Max Meyer, SI.com, 18 Mar. 2018
• Waterford thinks gay people are degenerate and would string McCullough up at the wall back home in Gilead.
  — Rena Gross, Billboard, 13 June 2018
• Adam Sandler plays a lying degenerate gambler in Uncut Gems, which in its sordid candor turns out to be one of the grabbiest films of the year.
  — Kyle Smith, National Review, 11 Dec. 2019
• Those who suffer from this madness will do anything, even toss democratic principles into the trash bin or vote for a moral degenerate like Roy Moore, to safeguard their illusion.
  — Eddie S. Glaude, Time, 13 Dec. 2017
• In a handsome catalog accompanying the show, curator Lynette Roth notes that only about a quarter of the more than 100 artists declared degenerate left the country.
  — M.j. Andersen, WSJ, 18 Apr. 2018
• In his iconic 1975 thriller High-Rise, a luxury apartment complex degenerates when its residents take up arms against each other, prompted by nothing but disputes over clogged garbage chutes.
  — Becca Rothfeld, The New Republic, 14 Mar. 2018
• The activities often took place at cast members’ ancestral plantations, but sometimes — and this is how Bonaparte, who is not a degenerate, comes in — at Bonaparte’s restaurants.
  — Anna Peele, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2021
• When someone has Alzheimer's disease, the person's brain cells that retrieve, process and store information degenerate and die, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
  — Kristen Rogers, CNN, 30 Aug. 2021

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024