Medicine Gradual deterioration of specific tissues, cells, or organs with corresponding impairment or loss of function, caused by injury, disease, or aging.
Biology The evolutionary decline or loss of a function, characteristic, or structure in an organism or a species.
Electronics Loss of or gain in power in an amplifier caused by unintentional negative feedback.
De*gen`er*a"tion\, n. [Cf. F. d['e]g['e]n['e]ration.]1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration. Our degeneration and apostasy. --Bates. 2. (Physiol.) 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. 3. (Biol.) A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type. 4. The thing degenerated. [R.] Cockle, aracus, . . . and other degenerations. --Sir T. Browne. Amyloid degeneration, Caseous degeneration, etc. See under Amyloid, Caseous, etc.
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