the act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.-that condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver.-a gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.-the thing degenerated.