| 释义 |
▪ I. degenerate, a.|dɪˈdʒɛnərət|
Also 5–6 -at, 6 Sc. -it.
[ad. L. dēgenerāt-us, pa. pple. of dēgenerāre: see next.]
A. as pa. pple. = Degenerated. Obs. or arch.
1494[see B. 1]. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xiv. 42 Sic brallaris and bosteris, degenerat fra thair naturis. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 19 How matrimonye was degenerat fra the first perfectioun. 1559in Strype Ann. Ref. I. viii. 23 To what abuses the state of that lyff was degenerate. 1607–12Bacon Ess. Great Place (Arb.) 284 Observe wherein and how they have degenerate. 1733Swift On Poetry 381 Degen'rate from their ancient brood.
B. as adj.
1. Having lost the qualities proper to the race or kind; having declined from a higher to a lower type; hence, declined in character or qualities; debased, degraded.
a. of persons.
1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxxv. 272 Thou art degenerat, & growen out of kynde. 1605Shakes. Lear i. iv. 276 Lear. Degenerate Bastard, Ile not trouble thee; Yet haue I left a daughter. 1794S. Williams Vermont 196 The Laplanders are only degenerate Tartars. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 139 Tyrconnel sprang..from one of those degenerate families of the pale which were popularly classed with the aboriginal population of Ireland. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. iii. 242 The degenerate representatives of a once noble institution.
b. of animals and plants: spec. in Biol. (cf. degeneration 1 b).
1611Bible Jer. ii. 21 How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine? 1651N. Bacon Disc. Govt. ii. i. (1739) 4 (As a Plant transplanted into a savage soil) in degree and disposition wholly degenerate. 1665T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 12 Penguins..the wings or fins hanging down like sleeves, covered with down instead of Feathers..a degenerate Duck. 1879Ray Lankester Degeneration 52 The Ascidian Phallusia shows itself to be a degenerate Vertebrate by beginning life as a tadpole. 1890M. Marshall in Nature 11 Sept., Animals..which have lost organs or systems which their progenitors possessed, are commonly called degenerate.
c. fig. of things. (In Geom. applied to a locus of any order when reduced to the condition of an aggregate of loci of a lower order.)
1552[see A]. 1669Gale Crt. of Gentiles i. i. vii. 36 The several names..were al but corrupt degenerate derivations from Iewish Traditions. 1763J. Brown Poetry & Mus. xi. 193 The degenerate Arts sunk with the degenerate City. 1878Morley Carlyle Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 201 The cant and formalism of any other degenerate form of active faith.
2. transf. Characterized by degeneracy.
1651tr. Bacon's Life & Death 8 In Tame Creatures, their Degenerate Life corrupteth them. 1715–20Pope Iliad xii. 540 Such men as live in these degenerate days. 1870Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 101 There has never been an age that was not degenerate in the eyes of its own fools.
3. Physics.
a. Of a quantized system: having two or more linearly independent eigenfunctions with the same eigenvalue; spec. having two or more states with the same energy; also applied to the eigenfunctions or the states. Also more widely, applied to any oscillatory system having two or more modes of oscillation with the same frequency, and to the modes themselves.
1923H. L. Brose tr. Sommerfeld's Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines 564 We follow Schwarzschild and call the exceptional case considered degenerate. A degenerate case thus occurs..when the quantum conditions are not uniquely determined. 1929Condon & Morse Quantum Mech. iv. 136 It is better to speak of a particular level as degenerate or non-degenerate, for there are mechanical systems in which some states are degenerate and others are not. 1940F. Seitz Mod. Theory Solids xii. 411 The six functions do not have the proper symmetry to have the same energy in a cubic crystal. Thus, the degenerate levels would split if interatomic interactions were taken into account. 1961Powell & Crasemann Quantum Mech. vi. 173 The eigenvalue α may be degenerate... Suppose, for example, that α is doubly degenerate, having linearly independent eigenfunctions ψ1 and ψ2 which may..be assumed to be orthonormal. 1968R. C. Stanley Light & Sound xvi. 315 If two or more normal modes [of vibration] formed by different reflection paths have the same resonant frequency..they are termed degenerate modes... In an irregularly shaped room fewer degenerate or near degenerate modes form.
b. Of a system of particles or ‘gas’ (such as the electrons in a metal or the interior of a white dwarf star): having properties which depart markedly from those of an ordinary gas as described by classical statistical mechanics, being described either by Fermi-Dirac or by Bose-Einstein statistics.
1928Proc. Physical Soc. XL. 330 Thomas supposes the electrons in an atom to be degenerate in the sense of Fermi and Dirac. 1939S. Chandrasekhar Introd. Study Stellar Struct. x. 358 A completely degenerate electron gas is one in which all the lowest quantum states are occupied. 1951J. Dougall tr. Born's Atomic Physics (ed. 5) viii. 265 Pauli and Sommerfeld (1927)..pointed out that the laws of classical statistics ought not to be applied to the electron gas within a metal, since it is bound to behave as a degenerate gas. 1954D. ter Haar Elem. Statist. Mech. iv. 95 In the interior of some stars such high densities will occur that notwithstanding the very high stellar temperatures the gas is degenerate. 1966New Statesman 15 Apr. 534/1 These x-ray sources..might be made of ‘degenerate matter’—matter so compacted that the atoms have collapsed down to the size of their nuclei. Such a star would be fantastically dense.
▪ II. degenerate, n.|dɪˈdʒɛnərət|
[subst. use of the adj.]
One who has lost, or has become deficient in, the qualities considered proper to the race or kind; a degenerate specimen; a person of debased physical or mental constitution.
1555J. Proctor Historie of Wyates Rebellion f. 80 It is to be wished..that prouoked with so greate clemencie these degenerates reforme themselues. 1895tr. Nordau's Degeneration i. iii. 18 In the mental development of degenerates, we meet with the same irregularity that we have observed in their physical growth... That which nearly all degenerates lack is the sense of morality and of right and wrong. 1901H. Ellis Criminal (ed. 3) iii. 51 Näcke..found the skulls of women..abnormal, and among degenerates generally..the stigmata of degeneracy are more common in women. 1919M. K. Bradby Psycho-analysis 17 The fact..is compatible with his being a genius or a degenerate, a scoundrel or a valuable citizen. 1952W. J. H. Sprott Soc. Psychol. viii. 142 The deplorable Jukes family, their dismal record of defectives and degenerates.
▪ III. degenerate, v.|dɪˈdʒɛnəreɪt|
[f. dēgenerāt-, ppl. stem of L. dēgenerāre to depart from its race or kind, to fall from its ancestral quality, f. dēgener adj. that departs from its race, ignoble, f. de- I. 1 + gener- (genus) race, kind. So F. dégénérer (15th c. in Hatzf.).]
1. intr. To lose, or become deficient in, the qualities proper to the race or kind; to fall away from ancestral virtue or excellence; hence (more generally), to decline in character or qualities, become of a lower type.
a. of persons.
1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 31 Degeneratinge from al kind of honestie and faithfulnes. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 12 When men degenerate, and by sinne put off the nature of man. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. xiii. 63 The manner of life, which men..degenerate into in a civill Warre. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess of Mar 10 Mar., It is well if I do not degenerate into a downright story⁓teller. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i. v, In this respect Florentines have not degenerated from their ancestral customs.
b. of animals and plants.
1577Bull Luther's Comm. Ps. Grad. (1615) 193 They degenerate, and grow out of kind, and become evil plants. 1626Bacon Sylva §518 Plants for want of Culture, degenerate to be baser in the same kind; and sometimes so far, as to change into another kind. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v. Degeneration, It is a great dispute among the naturalists, whether or no animals, plants, etc. be capable of degenerating into other species? 1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 53 They have from neglect degenerated into ponies.
c. transf. and fig. of things.
1545T. Raynalde Byrth of Mankynde 40 When they be entered into the nauell, the ii. vaynes degenerat in one. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iii. §2. 12 After that the state of Rome was not it selfe, but did degenerate. 1741Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 263 Liberty..is..liable..to degenerate insensibly into licentiousness. 1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 125 The Latin of the bar had degenerated into the most ludicrous barbarism.
d. Geom. Of a curve or other locus: To become reduced to a lower order, or altered into a locus of a different or less complex form.
1763W. Emerson Meth. Increments vii, If the parts of the abscissa be taken infinitely small, then these parallelograms degenerate into the curve.
†2. To show a falling-off or degeneration from an anterior type; to be degenerate. Obs.
1548Hall Chron. 176 b, Jhon Talbot erle of Shrewesbury, a valeant person, and not degenerating from his noble parent. 1623Bingham Xenophon 48 Of such Ancestors are you descended. I speak not this, as though you degenerated from them. 1715–20Pope Iliad iv. 451 Such Tydeus was..Gods! how the son degenerates from the sire. 1739― in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 255 Dr. Arbuthnot's daughter does not degenerate from the humour and goodness of her father.
†3. To become or be altered in nature or character (without implying debasement); to change in kind; to show an alteration from a normal type.
1548Hall Chron. 176 b, The Scottes also not degeneratyng from their olde mutabilitie. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 149 It is now highe time for you to degenerate, and to be unlike your selfe [i.e. less martial]. 1597Gerarde Herbal i. xlii. 62 It is altered..into Wheate it selfe, as degenerating from bad to better. 1600Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 186 Some..followed Courses degenerating from the Voyage before pretended.
†4. To fall away, revolt. Obs. rare.
1602Carew Cornwall 98 a, The Cornish men..marched to..Welles, where James Touchet, Lord Audely, degenerated to their party. 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 431 His friends forsake him, his wife and children suffer with him, or leaue him, or rebell, or degenerate against him.
5. trans. To cause to degenerate; to reduce to a lower or worse condition; to debase, degrade.
1645Milton Tetrach. 192 It degenerates and disorders the best spirits. 1653Cloria & Narcissus I. 172 The least dejection of spirit..would degenerate you from your birth and education. 1710Brit. Apollo III. 2/1 They.. Degenerate themselves to Brutes. 1790–1811Combe Devil upon Two Sticks in Eng. (1817) iv. 16 Her theatric excellencies..are impaired by physical defects, or degenerated by the adoption of bad habits. 1893J. Pulsford Loyalty to Christ II. 131 The one seeking to regenerate, and the other to degenerate yet more and more the soul's nature. 1921E. MacNeill Celtic Irel. 17 Acquired habits..can degenerate and recreate a nation.
†6. To generate (something of an inferior or lower type). Obs. rare.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V xciv, A bastard flye, Corrupting where it breaths..Degenerating Putrefaction. 1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xxxii. 75 It is backwards more deep and broad, that the lower and after⁓end might degenerate as it were the Ditch or Trench.
Hence deˈgenerating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vi. xx. §1. 105 Young Commodus, his soone degenerating Son. 1693Brancard Phys. Dict. 140/1 Metaptosis, the degenerating of one Disease into another, as of a Quartane Ague into a Tertian. 1746W. Horsley The Fool No. 5 ⁋6 A Degenerating from this Character is the Progress towards the Formation of a Beau. |