degenerate

“Degen” is a term that alludes to degenerate gamblers and first gained popularity on Reddit to refer to investors who gravitate toward wildly risky strategies.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025

These stellar remnants behave in unusual ways, since their internal structure makes them shrink as they gain mass, which is why they are known as degenerate stars.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 2, 2025

You need to be a true degenerate for Las Vegas to break your heart.

From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025

That it no longer seems to be leaves us all morally degenerate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

After a few minutes of conversation in which I established most easily my moral superiority over this degenerate, I found myself pondering once more the crises of our times.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

“You don’t need to worry about presenting a certain way or being perceived in a certain way. All the characters in ‘The Pineapple’ are degenerates, and this show invites you to become one as well.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

As the valve tissue degenerates, the thin flaps that should meet neatly can thicken, stretch, or lose their normal shape.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026

By targeting the “worst” degenerates first, they fractured the opposition, and inadvertently created that “First they came for…” poem that we all now memorize in middle school.

From Slate ● Feb. 16, 2025

“When my dad’s wife died a couple of years back, it was those rave degenerates who were there for me,” she says.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2024

“If our search degenerates to that level I’ll be sure to call on you,” I said without looking in his direction.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

As a true cave-dwelling animal, it has entirely lost its eyes, with the structures normally associated with vision having fully degenerated.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

By 2024, my hobby was starting to feel like work, and it was only a matter of time before the sport degenerated enough to make it official.

From Slate ● Jun. 14, 2026

Wingtech representatives responded that the Dutch intervention was "incomprehensible" and meant the row "degenerated needlessly".

From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026

The storm prompted the first-ever tropical storm watches and warnings issued in California, but officials now say it had degenerated into a post-tropical low by the time it reached the state.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2024

In time, the tobogganing degenerated into a snowball fight, which the old folks seemed to be enjoying as much as Karl and his friends were.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

It had earlier said he could not be transferred elsewhere due to his degenerating condition.

From BBC ● May 31, 2026

Not to get too philosophical, but everything alive is degenerating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

“All of this has been degenerating for a long time,” Melgar said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025

In many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, the neurons start degenerating at a very early stage -- sometimes years before other brain regions begin to falter.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 17, 2023

He did all that was in his power to do to prevent his authority from degenerating into tyranny.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5 English History by Various