degradations

Noun

degradation (countable and uncountable, plural degradations)

1. The act of reducing in rank, character, or reputation, or of abasing; a lowering from one's standing or rank in office or society
   • This feature of good organization, the conferring of definite local superior rank, and the protection of the incumbent from unnecessary degradation, was discovered centuries ago by another effective institution, the Catholic church.1912, Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official: Letter 7

   Synonyms:

   abasement

2. The state of being reduced in rank, character, or reputation; baseness; moral, physical, or intellectual degeneracy; disgrace; abasement; debasement.
   • There will be no poverty. All work will be done by living machines. Everybody will be free from worry and liberated from the degradation of labor. Everybody will live only to perfect himself.c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act...

   Synonyms:

   debauchment, depravement, perversion, abasement, adulteration, corruption, debasement, defilement, depravation, impurification

3. Diminution or reduction of strength, efficacy, or value; degeneration; deterioration.
   • […] for it could not be expected that a class condemned to increasing degradation of mind and body would be able to bring about the greatest revolution in history, including not only economic changes but the efflorescence of art and civilization.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...

   Synonyms:

   debasement, worsening, aggravation, corruption, degeneration, deterioration, devolution, embasement, exacerbation, ruining

4. A gradual wearing down or wasting, as of rocks and banks, by the action of water, frost etc.
   • Overexploitation of land for fuelwood is a further cause of soil degradation in Africa, Asia and South America2017, Nigel Woodcock, Geology and Environment In Britain and Ireland
5. A deleterious change in the chemical structure, physical properties or appearance of a material from natural or artificial exposure.
6. The state or condition of a species or group which exhibits degraded forms; degeneration.

See all 8 meanings of degradation