Degenerate
King James Dictionary [1]
Degenerate, L Grown worse, ignoble, base.
1. To become worse to decay in good qualities to pass from a good to a bad or worse state to lose or suffer a diminution of valuable qualities, either in the natural or moral world. In the natural world, plants and animals degenerate when they grow to a less size than usual, or lose a part of the valuable qualities which belong to the species. In the moral world, men degenerate when they decline in virtue, or other good qualities. Manners degenerate when they become corrupt. Wit may degenerate into indecency or impiety.
Degenerate a.
1. Having fallen from a perfect or good state into a less excellent or worse state having lost something of the good qualities possessed having declined in natural or moral worth.
The degenerate plant of a strange vine. Jeremiah 2 .
2. Low base mean corrupt fallen from primitive or natural excellence having lost the good qualities of the species. Man is considered a degenerate being. A coward is a man of degenerate spirit.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( v. i.) To fall off from the normal quality or the healthy structure of its kind; to become of a lower type.
(2): ( v. i.) To be or grow worse than one's kind, or than one was originally; hence, to be inferior; to grow poorer, meaner, or more vicious; to decline in good qualities; to deteriorate.
(3): ( a.) Having become worse than one's kind, or one's former state; having declined in worth; having lost in goodness; deteriorated; degraded; unworthy; base; low.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
dē̇ - jen´ẽr - āt : Only in Jeremiah 2:21 , where Judah is compared to a "noble vine" which it "turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine." It represents Hebrew ṣūrı̄m = "stray" or "degenerate (shoots)," from ṣūr = "to turn aside," especially to turn aside from the right path (Greek pikria , literally, "bitterness").
