degradationn.¹

/dɛɡrəˈdeɪʃən/

Etymology: < French dégradation (14th cent. in Hatzfeld & Darmesteter), < medieval Latin dēgradātiōn-em , noun of action < dēgradāre , to degrade v.: see -ation suffix.

The action of degrading.

1. Deposition from some rank, office, or position of honour as an act of punishment; esp. the depriving of an ecclesiastic of his orders, benefices, and privileges, of a knight, military officer, etc., of his rank, of a graduate of his academical degree. In Ecclesiastical Law, two kinds of degradation are recognized: see quot. 1885.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > [noun] > as punishment

degradationa1535

disgradement1538

disgradation1728

a1535 T. More Wks. (R.) 624 (R.) Vpon..hys degradacion, he kneled downe before the byshoppes chauncellour..& humbli besought him of absolucion fro the sentence of excommunicacion.

1586 Exam. H. Barrowe in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 35 Since his excommunication and degradation by the Romish church.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 43 He saw many Removes, and Degradations, in all the other Offices of which he had been possess'd.

1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 206 Degradation is commonly used to denote a Deprivation or Removing of a Man from his Office and Benefice.

1779 S. Johnson Halifax in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets IV. 1 An..active statesman..exposed to the vicissitudes of advancement and degradation.

1885 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) 253/2 Degradation is of two kinds, verbal and real. By the first a criminous cleric is declared to be perpetually deposed from clerical orders, or from the execution thereof, so as to be deprived of all order and function..and of any benefice which he might have previously enjoyed..Real or actual degradation is that which, besides deposing a cleric from the exercise of his ministry, actually strips him of his orders, according to a prescribed ceremonial, and delivers him to the secular arm to be punished.

1898 Westm. Gaz. 15 Jan. 5/1 Madame Dreyfus..sends to the Press a letter from her husband..written the day after the degradation.

2. Lowering in honour, estimation, social position, etc.; the state or condition of being so lowered.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > [noun]

debatec1460

disparagement1486

embasement1575

digraduation1577

lessening1579

degraduation1581

disparagea1592

bastardizing1598

debasement1602

deplumation1611

depression1628

vilificationa1631

degradement1641

degrading1646

prostration1647

deprisure1648

embasure1656

embasing1659

debasure1683

degradationc1752

derogation1785

demotion1872

objectification1973

c1752 S. Johnson in Boswell Life Johnson (1887) IV. 382 (note) A Table of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, distinguished by figures into six degrees of value, with notes, giving the reasons of preference or degradation.

1794 S. Williams Nat. & Civil Hist. Vermont 152 This degradation of the female was carried to its greatest extreme.

1833 H. Martineau Brooke & Brooke Farm (ed. 3) v. 70 They would complain of the degradation of obtaining their food by rendering service.

1878 W. S. Jevons Polit. Econ. 85 Enough ought to have been saved to avoid the need of charity or the degradation of the poor-house.

3. Lowering in character or quality; the state or condition of being degraded morally or intellectually; moral debasement.

ΘΚΠ

society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [noun]

degeneration?1481

declining1526

declination1533

depravation1561

villainy1564

declension1597

depravedness1623

decadency1632

degenerateness1640

depravity1643

depravement1645

degradation1663

degeneracy1664

degenerousness1678

marasmus1681

debasednessa1720

decadencea1734

demoralization1797

downgrade1857

decadentism1949

the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > immorality > [noun] > and low

degradation1663

debasednessa1720

1663 R. South Serm. preached Nov. 9, 1662 37 So deplorable [is] the degradation of our nature.

1697 J. Locke 2nd Vindic. Reasonableness Christianity li. 395 The lowest Degradation that Human Nature could well sink it self to.

1856 B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. (ed. 3) I. iii. 77 Nothing can tend more to every kind of..degradation than the vice of gin-drinking.

1866 G. MacDonald Ann. Quiet Neighb. (1878) xxvii. 473 She would not submit to the degradation of marrying a man she did not love.

a. Reduction to an inferior type or stage of development. Also attributive.

ΚΠ

1850 H. Rogers Ess. II. iv. 169 The vocabulary would be for the most part retained, and the grammatical forms undergo degradation.

1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. 34 The progression-theory recognizes degradation, and the degradation-theory recognizes progression, as powerful influences in the course of culture.

b. spec. Biology. Reduction of an organ or structure to a less perfect or more rudimentary condition; degeneration.

ΚΠ

1849 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. §649 There is thus traced a degradation, as it is called, from a flower with three stamens and three divisions of the calyx, to one with a single bract and a single stamen or carpel.

1872 St. G. Mivart Lessons Elem. Anat. ii. 59 The maximum of degradation and abortion of the coccyx is in the Bats.

1873 St. G. Mivart Lessons Elem. Anat. ii. 39 ‘Degradation’ is a constant character of the last vertebræ in all classes of Vertebrates.

c. Structural Bot. A change in the substance of the organized structures of plants, resulting in the formation of products ( degradation-products) which have no further use in the building up of new cell-walls or protoplasmic structures. In wider use in Biochemistry and Chemistry: a simplification of the structure of a molecule, brought about either naturally or artificially, in which it loses some constituent atoms or is broken up into a number of simpler molecules.

ΚΠ

1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 628 The substances which cause lignification, suberisation, or cuticularisation are also probably the result of a partial degradation of the cellulose of the cell-walls.

1883 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Degradation products, a term applied to such compounds as gum in plants.

1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns 511 The transformation or degradation of the alburnum into duramen takes place in some [trees] gradually, in others suddenly.

1900 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 78 i. 650 (heading) Synthesis and degradation in the coumarone series.

1937 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 118 781 The general conception has been that the enzymatic degradation of proteins proceeds in two distinct stages; i.e., the proteinases cleave the true protein into polypeptides and..the polypeptidases and dipeptidase complete the degradation to amino acids.

1938 L. Small in H. Gilman Org. Chem. II. xii. 1027 The cyanogen bromide degradation..often succeeds with compounds that resist the Hofmann degradation... Other vigorous degradations are often employed to determine the fundamental structures present.

1949 Nature 15 Jan. 94/2 The identification of this degradation product affords support for the view that one point of attachment of the disulphide grouping in gliotoxin is via a carbon atom directly linked to the indole nitrogen.

1954 Biochem. Jrnl. 58 392/1 The terminal monoribonucleotide..was obtained by stepwise degradation of the polynucleotides listed in Table 1.

1958 D. W. G. Ballentyne & L. E. Q. Walker Dict. Named Effects 192 Weerman degradation. An α hydroxy or α methoxy amide may be degraded to an aldehyde containing one less carbon atom by the action of a cold aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite.

1966 R. T. Morrison & R. N. Boyd Org. Chem. (ed. 2) iv. 139 We may carry out a degradation: break the molecule apart, identify the fragments, and deduce what the structure must have been.

1968 Times 24 Oct. 7/8 Organic materials that accumulate in deep waters in the sea are relatively resistant to degradation by micro-organisms.

1970 Nature 26 Dec. 1313/1 Most body proteins are continually degraded and resynthesized. The protein content of various organs must represent the net balance between synthesis and degradation over some period of time.

d. Physics. The conversion of (energy) into a lower form, i.e. one which has a decreased capability of being transformed.

ΚΠ

1871 B. Stewart Heat (ed. 2) §384 When mechanical energy is transmuted into heat by friction or otherwise there is always a degradation in the form of energy.

1876 P. G. Tait Lect. Recent Adv. in Physical Sci. vi. 146 A certain amount of degradation (degraded energy meaning energy less capable of being transformed than before).

e. Soil Science. (See quot. 1958.)

ΚΠ

1897 R. I. Phillips Fertility of Land x. 231 A warm summer and fall..is followed by superabundant rains, which wash out the nitrogen liberated during the warm weather, and in some cases cause such degradation of the soil as to destroy its usefulness for tillage purposes.

1927 C. F. Marbut tr. K. D. Glinka Great Soil Groups 95 Holes made by burrowing animals were found filled with a brownish mass on which one could see the evidences of the later degradation which took place under the influence of the acid forest humus.

1958 Yearbk. Agric. 1957 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 756/1 Degradation (of soils), the change of one kind of soil to a more highly leached kind, such as the change of a Chernozem to a Podzol.

1965 B. T. Bunting Geogr. Soil xiii. 157 Invasions of populus on to chernozemic soils in Canada have caused degradation to gray wooded soils.

5. A lowering or reducing in strength, amount, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [noun] > other

rot1581

off-falling1607

impoverishment1618

degradation1770

1770 J. Strange in Philos. Trans. 1769 (Royal Soc.) 59 55 This plant was in the first stage of putrefaction..hence its degradation of colour.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. v. 41 The degradation in the value of silver.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. xi. 290 This degradation both in the real and nominal value of wool.

1883 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Senile degradation, the gradual failure of the mental and bodily powers due to age.

1883 J. M. Duncan Clin. Lect. Dis. Women (ed. 2) xii. 115 Producing, as its only great indications, degradation of the general health and a hydroperitoneal collection.

1958 Engineering 21 Mar. 358/1 The picture degradation normally experienced between successive generations of facsimile pictures is largely eliminated with the..machine.

1958 Times Rev. Industry June 26/1 Chemical reagents employed may easily lead to the degradation of the silicon.

1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 89/1 Degradation, the degree to which the quality of the film image at any stage is inferior to the original scene, or to the image at some previous stage.

1966 Electronics 17 Oct. 103 Indication to the aircrew of the amount of degradation of functions to allow assessment of mission capability.

a. Geology. The disintegration and wearing down of the surface of rocks, cliffs, strata, etc., by atmospheric and aqueous action.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > structure of the earth > formation of features > erosion or weathering > [noun]

deterration1686

undermining1693

erosion1774

corrosion1781

degradation1799

denudation1811

corrasion1875

the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [noun] > loss of material > wearing away > by action of weather

weathering1665

degradation1799

weather-wear1824

weather1894

1799 R. Kirwan Geol. Ess. 327 Those of siliceous shistus are most subject to this degradation and decomposition.

1802 J. Playfair Illustr. Huttonian Theory 156 The great degradation of mountains, involved in this hypothesis.

1853 J. Phillips Rivers, Mountains, & Sea-coast Yorks. i. 11 The chalk..yields rather easily to degradation.

1875 J. Croll Climate & Time xvii. 268 Old sea-bottoms formed out of the accumulated material derived from the degradation of primeval land-surfaces.

1898 T. C. Chamberlin in Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 6 524 The degradation of the one furnishes the material for the aggradation of the other.

1909 W. M. Davis Geogr. Ess. xviii. 408 ‘Degradation’..is more properly associated with those leisurely processes..in which a graded slope is reduced to fainter and fainter declivity, although maintaining its graded condition all the while.

1922 C. A. Cotton Geomorphol. N.Z. vi. 61 When..a stream cuts downward to establish or maintain grade, it is said to degrade; and the process is termed degradation.

b. transferred. Wearing down of any surface.

ΚΠ

1849 J. Ruskin Seven Lamps Archit. vi. 179 The materials to be employed are liable to degradation, as brick, sandstone, or soft limestone.

1861 F. Nightingale Notes on Nursing (new ed.) 62 There is a constant degradation, as it is called, taking place from everything except polished or glazed articles.

Draft additions June 2006

Deterioration of the quality of an environment or ecosystem, esp. involving a decrease in its biodiversity, or its capacity to support life. Cf. sense 4e.

ΚΠ

1937 Jrnl. Royal Afr. Soc. 36 22 The extra pressure upon the area, brought about by an increase in population, will result in an accelerating degradation of the forest.

1957 M. Banton West Afr. City iii. 43 The primary cause of the degradation of the Escarpment and the Nimini-Dodo-Kambui Hills regions is farming on land topographically unsuitable.

1984 A. C. Duxbury & A. Duxbury Introd. World's Oceans xiv. 464 Alaskan salmon fisheries are experiencing difficulties due to the degradation of the salmon's freshwater environment.

2003 Independent 27 Oct. i. 8/7 A growth in international trade and the continued degradation of the countryside could combine to make Britain even more vulnerable to alien invaders.

This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online September 2019).

单词	degradation
释义	degradationn.¹ /dɛɡrəˈdeɪʃən/ Etymology: < French dégradation (14th cent. in Hatzfeld & Darmesteter), < medieval Latin dēgradātiōn-em , noun of action < dēgradāre , to degrade v.: see -ation suffix. The action of degrading. 1. Deposition from some rank, office, or position of honour as an act of punishment; esp. the depriving of an ecclesiastic of his orders, benefices, and privileges, of a knight, military officer, etc., of his rank, of a graduate of his academical degree. In Ecclesiastical Law, two kinds of degradation are recognized: see quot. 1885. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > [noun] > as punishment degradationa1535 disgradement1538 disgradation1728 a1535 T. More Wks. (R.) 624 (R.) Vpon..hys degradacion, he kneled downe before the byshoppes chauncellour..& humbli besought him of absolucion fro the sentence of excommunicacion. 1586 Exam. H. Barrowe in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 35 Since his excommunication and degradation by the Romish church. 1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 43 He saw many Removes, and Degradations, in all the other Offices of which he had been possess'd. 1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 206 Degradation is commonly used to denote a Deprivation or Removing of a Man from his Office and Benefice. 1779 S. Johnson Halifax in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets IV. 1 An..active statesman..exposed to the vicissitudes of advancement and degradation. 1885 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) 253/2 Degradation is of two kinds, verbal and real. By the first a criminous cleric is declared to be perpetually deposed from clerical orders, or from the execution thereof, so as to be deprived of all order and function..and of any benefice which he might have previously enjoyed..Real or actual degradation is that which, besides deposing a cleric from the exercise of his ministry, actually strips him of his orders, according to a prescribed ceremonial, and delivers him to the secular arm to be punished. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 15 Jan. 5/1 Madame Dreyfus..sends to the Press a letter from her husband..written the day after the degradation. 2. Lowering in honour, estimation, social position, etc.; the state or condition of being so lowered. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > [noun] debatec1460 disparagement1486 embasement1575 digraduation1577 lessening1579 degraduation1581 disparagea1592 bastardizing1598 debasement1602 deplumation1611 depression1628 vilificationa1631 degradement1641 degrading1646 prostration1647 deprisure1648 embasure1656 embasing1659 debasure1683 degradationc1752 derogation1785 demotion1872 objectification1973 c1752 S. Johnson in Boswell Life Johnson (1887) IV. 382 (note) A Table of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, distinguished by figures into six degrees of value, with notes, giving the reasons of preference or degradation. 1794 S. Williams Nat. & Civil Hist. Vermont 152 This degradation of the female was carried to its greatest extreme. 1833 H. Martineau Brooke & Brooke Farm (ed. 3) v. 70 They would complain of the degradation of obtaining their food by rendering service. 1878 W. S. Jevons Polit. Econ. 85 Enough ought to have been saved to avoid the need of charity or the degradation of the poor-house. 3. Lowering in character or quality; the state or condition of being degraded morally or intellectually; moral debasement. ΘΚΠ society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [noun] degeneration?1481 declining1526 declination1533 depravation1561 villainy1564 declension1597 depravedness1623 decadency1632 degenerateness1640 depravity1643 depravement1645 degradation1663 degeneracy1664 degenerousness1678 marasmus1681 debasednessa1720 decadencea1734 demoralization1797 downgrade1857 decadentism1949 the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > immorality > [noun] > and low degradation1663 debasednessa1720 1663 R. South Serm. preached Nov. 9, 1662 37 So deplorable [is] the degradation of our nature. 1697 J. Locke 2nd Vindic. Reasonableness Christianity li. 395 The lowest Degradation that Human Nature could well sink it self to. 1856 B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. (ed. 3) I. iii. 77 Nothing can tend more to every kind of..degradation than the vice of gin-drinking. 1866 G. MacDonald Ann. Quiet Neighb. (1878) xxvii. 473 She would not submit to the degradation of marrying a man she did not love. 4. a. Reduction to an inferior type or stage of development. Also attributive. ΚΠ 1850 H. Rogers Ess. II. iv. 169 The vocabulary would be for the most part retained, and the grammatical forms undergo degradation. 1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. 34 The progression-theory recognizes degradation, and the degradation-theory recognizes progression, as powerful influences in the course of culture. b. spec. Biology. Reduction of an organ or structure to a less perfect or more rudimentary condition; degeneration. ΚΠ 1849 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. §649 There is thus traced a degradation, as it is called, from a flower with three stamens and three divisions of the calyx, to one with a single bract and a single stamen or carpel. 1872 St. G. Mivart Lessons Elem. Anat. ii. 59 The maximum of degradation and abortion of the coccyx is in the Bats. 1873 St. G. Mivart Lessons Elem. Anat. ii. 39 ‘Degradation’ is a constant character of the last vertebræ in all classes of Vertebrates. c. Structural Bot. A change in the substance of the organized structures of plants, resulting in the formation of products ( degradation-products) which have no further use in the building up of new cell-walls or protoplasmic structures. In wider use in Biochemistry and Chemistry: a simplification of the structure of a molecule, brought about either naturally or artificially, in which it loses some constituent atoms or is broken up into a number of simpler molecules. ΚΠ 1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 628 The substances which cause lignification, suberisation, or cuticularisation are also probably the result of a partial degradation of the cellulose of the cell-walls. 1883 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Degradation products, a term applied to such compounds as gum in plants. 1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns 511 The transformation or degradation of the alburnum into duramen takes place in some [trees] gradually, in others suddenly. 1900 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 78 i. 650 (heading) Synthesis and degradation in the coumarone series. 1937 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 118 781 The general conception has been that the enzymatic degradation of proteins proceeds in two distinct stages; i.e., the proteinases cleave the true protein into polypeptides and..the polypeptidases and dipeptidase complete the degradation to amino acids. 1938 L. Small in H. Gilman Org. Chem. II. xii. 1027 The cyanogen bromide degradation..often succeeds with compounds that resist the Hofmann degradation... Other vigorous degradations are often employed to determine the fundamental structures present. 1949 Nature 15 Jan. 94/2 The identification of this degradation product affords support for the view that one point of attachment of the disulphide grouping in gliotoxin is via a carbon atom directly linked to the indole nitrogen. 1954 Biochem. Jrnl. 58 392/1 The terminal monoribonucleotide..was obtained by stepwise degradation of the polynucleotides listed in Table 1. 1958 D. W. G. Ballentyne & L. E. Q. Walker Dict. Named Effects 192 Weerman degradation. An α hydroxy or α methoxy amide may be degraded to an aldehyde containing one less carbon atom by the action of a cold aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite. 1966 R. T. Morrison & R. N. Boyd Org. Chem. (ed. 2) iv. 139 We may carry out a degradation: break the molecule apart, identify the fragments, and deduce what the structure must have been. 1968 Times 24 Oct. 7/8 Organic materials that accumulate in deep waters in the sea are relatively resistant to degradation by micro-organisms. 1970 Nature 26 Dec. 1313/1 Most body proteins are continually degraded and resynthesized. The protein content of various organs must represent the net balance between synthesis and degradation over some period of time. d. Physics. The conversion of (energy) into a lower form, i.e. one which has a decreased capability of being transformed. ΚΠ 1871 B. Stewart Heat (ed. 2) §384 When mechanical energy is transmuted into heat by friction or otherwise there is always a degradation in the form of energy. 1876 P. G. Tait Lect. Recent Adv. in Physical Sci. vi. 146 A certain amount of degradation (degraded energy meaning energy less capable of being transformed than before). e. Soil Science. (See quot. 1958.) ΚΠ 1897 R. I. Phillips Fertility of Land x. 231 A warm summer and fall..is followed by superabundant rains, which wash out the nitrogen liberated during the warm weather, and in some cases cause such degradation of the soil as to destroy its usefulness for tillage purposes. 1927 C. F. Marbut tr. K. D. Glinka Great Soil Groups 95 Holes made by burrowing animals were found filled with a brownish mass on which one could see the evidences of the later degradation which took place under the influence of the acid forest humus. 1958 Yearbk. Agric. 1957 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 756/1 Degradation (of soils), the change of one kind of soil to a more highly leached kind, such as the change of a Chernozem to a Podzol. 1965 B. T. Bunting Geogr. Soil xiii. 157 Invasions of populus on to chernozemic soils in Canada have caused degradation to gray wooded soils. 5. A lowering or reducing in strength, amount, etc. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [noun] > other rot1581 off-falling1607 impoverishment1618 degradation1770 1770 J. Strange in Philos. Trans. 1769 (Royal Soc.) 59 55 This plant was in the first stage of putrefaction..hence its degradation of colour. 1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. v. 41 The degradation in the value of silver. View more context for this quotation 1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. xi. 290 This degradation both in the real and nominal value of wool. View more context for this quotation 1883 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Senile degradation, the gradual failure of the mental and bodily powers due to age. 1883 J. M. Duncan Clin. Lect. Dis. Women (ed. 2) xii. 115 Producing, as its only great indications, degradation of the general health and a hydroperitoneal collection. 1958 Engineering 21 Mar. 358/1 The picture degradation normally experienced between successive generations of facsimile pictures is largely eliminated with the..machine. 1958 Times Rev. Industry June 26/1 Chemical reagents employed may easily lead to the degradation of the silicon. 1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 89/1 Degradation, the degree to which the quality of the film image at any stage is inferior to the original scene, or to the image at some previous stage. 1966 Electronics 17 Oct. 103 Indication to the aircrew of the amount of degradation of functions to allow assessment of mission capability. 6. a. Geology. The disintegration and wearing down of the surface of rocks, cliffs, strata, etc., by atmospheric and aqueous action. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > structure of the earth > formation of features > erosion or weathering > [noun] deterration1686 undermining1693 erosion1774 corrosion1781 degradation1799 denudation1811 corrasion1875 the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [noun] > loss of material > wearing away > by action of weather weathering1665 degradation1799 weather-wear1824 weather1894 1799 R. Kirwan Geol. Ess. 327 Those of siliceous shistus are most subject to this degradation and decomposition. 1802 J. Playfair Illustr. Huttonian Theory 156 The great degradation of mountains, involved in this hypothesis. 1853 J. Phillips Rivers, Mountains, & Sea-coast Yorks. i. 11 The chalk..yields rather easily to degradation. 1875 J. Croll Climate & Time xvii. 268 Old sea-bottoms formed out of the accumulated material derived from the degradation of primeval land-surfaces. 1898 T. C. Chamberlin in Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 6 524 The degradation of the one furnishes the material for the aggradation of the other. 1909 W. M. Davis Geogr. Ess. xviii. 408 ‘Degradation’..is more properly associated with those leisurely processes..in which a graded slope is reduced to fainter and fainter declivity, although maintaining its graded condition all the while. 1922 C. A. Cotton Geomorphol. N.Z. vi. 61 When..a stream cuts downward to establish or maintain grade, it is said to degrade; and the process is termed degradation. b. transferred. Wearing down of any surface. ΚΠ 1849 J. Ruskin Seven Lamps Archit. vi. 179 The materials to be employed are liable to degradation, as brick, sandstone, or soft limestone. 1861 F. Nightingale Notes on Nursing (new ed.) 62 There is a constant degradation, as it is called, taking place from everything except polished or glazed articles. Draft additions June 2006 Deterioration of the quality of an environment or ecosystem, esp. involving a decrease in its biodiversity, or its capacity to support life. Cf. sense 4e. ΚΠ 1937 Jrnl. Royal Afr. Soc. 36 22 The extra pressure upon the area, brought about by an increase in population, will result in an accelerating degradation of the forest. 1957 M. Banton West Afr. City iii. 43 The primary cause of the degradation of the Escarpment and the Nimini-Dodo-Kambui Hills regions is farming on land topographically unsuitable. 1984 A. C. Duxbury & A. Duxbury Introd. World's Oceans xiv. 464 Alaskan salmon fisheries are experiencing difficulties due to the degradation of the salmon's freshwater environment. 2003 Independent 27 Oct. i. 8/7 A growth in international trade and the continued degradation of the countryside could combine to make Britain even more vulnerable to alien invaders. This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online September 2019). degradationn.² /ˌdiːɡrəˈdeɪʃən/ Etymology: In sense 1, < French dégradation (Molière, 17th cent.), < Italian digradazione , < digradare to come down by degrees. Sense 2 may also be from Italian; but compare gradation n. 1. Painting. The gradual lowering of colour or light in a painting; esp. that which gives the effect of distance; gradation of tint; gradual toning down or shading off. ? Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > painting > art of colouring > [noun] > modifying tone > toning down degradation1706 de-graduationa1806 1706 J. Savage tr. R. de Piles Art of Painting 36 Perspective..regulates..the Degradation of Colours in all places of the Picture. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting II. iii. 130 There is great truth and nature in his heads; but the carnations are too bricky, and want a degradation and variety of tints. 1817 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. 212 Colours..used as the means of that gentle degradation requisite in order to produce the effect of a whole. 1881 C. A. Young Sun 250 Vogel's observations show a much more rapid degradation of the light. †2. Diminution (in size or thickness) by degrees or successive steps; the part so reduced. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > reduction in size or extent > [noun] > gradual degradation1730 dwindlement1863 melting1897 1730 A. Gordon tr. F. S. Maffei Compl. Hist. Anc. Amphitheatres 285 The internal Degradation of the Wall. 1730 A. Gordon tr. F. S. Maffei Compl. Hist. Anc. Amphitheatres 406 The Retiring of the Wall..proceeds by a Degradation above that Stone..and more largely in the Degradation of the second Story; so that the third is reduced to a small Thickness. 1730 A. Gordon tr. F. S. Maffei Compl. Hist. Anc. Amphitheatres 407 There being no Marks of Vaults on the Degradation of the Wall. This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < n.¹a1535n.²1706
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degradationn.1

Draft additions June 2006

degradationn.2

degradationn.¹

degradationn.²