DEGENERACY, n.
1. A growing worse or inferior; a decline in good qualities; or a state of being less valuable; as the degeneracy of a plant.
2. In morals, decay of virtue; a growing worse; departure from the virtues of ancestors; desertion of that which is good. We speak of the degeneracy of men in modern times, or of the degeneracy of manners, of the age, of virtue, _c., sometimes without reason.
3. Poorness; meanness; as a degeneracy of spirit.
