Both Uses of
degenerate
in
Childhood's End
- Western man had relearned-what the rest of the world had never forgotten-that there was nothing sinful in leisure as long as it did not degenerate into mere sloth.†
Chpt 6 *
- There had been men on Earth as little as ten years ago, but they had been degenerate survivors and Jan had lost nothing by missing them.†
Chpt 23
Definition:
-
(degenerate) to grow worse; or describing a person or situation that is worse in the sense of deviating from what is socially acceptable