Degenerate

Part of speech: verb (v.)

1. 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. When wit transgresseth decency, it degenerates into insolence and impiety. Tillotson.

2. To fall off from the normal quality or the healthy structure of its kind; to become of a lower type.

Part of speech: adjective (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. Faint-hearted and degenerate king. Shak. A degenerate and degraded state. Milton. Degenerate from their ancient blood. Swift. These degenerate days. Pope. I had planted thee a noble vine . . . : how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me Jer. ii. 21.