worseners

Noun

worsener (plural worseners)

1. One who or that which worsens (things), makes things worse.
   • Make-believe worseners of human nature and human life, Wertherian, Byronic or à la Musset have given way to the trio of the blackening pen, Flaubert, Zola, Maupassant, and later on their heels comes a wit as brilliant and versatile as Voltaire's, but without Voltaire's hopefulness and faith in...1911, Matilda Betham-Edwards, French Men, Women and Books: A Series of Nineteenth-century Studies/ by Miss Betham-Edwards, page 89
2. (especially) One who or that which worsens (internally), becomes worse, deteriorates in condition.
   • [There] is no suggestion that they were treated differently, for example, from the “worseners” or those who remained the same in the same groups. In reviewing the characteristics of improvers as compared with worseners, a multivariate analysis (to be reported on at a later date) shows no cluster of...1963, American Journal of Public Health: JPH