degradation

From French dégradation. Morphologically degrade +‎ -ation.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌdɛɡɹəˈdeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

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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
   • 1912, Charles DeLano Hine, Letters from an old railway official: Letter 7:

     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.

2. The state of being reduced in rank, character, or reputation; baseness; moral, physical, or intellectual degeneracy; disgrace; abasement; debasement.
   • 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 1:

     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.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Different Views of Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 112:

     Money is the great breaker-up of love and friendship; and this is, I believe, the reason of the common saying, that "large families get on best in the world," because they can receive from each other assistance without degradation.

3. Diminution or reduction of strength, efficacy, or value; degeneration; deterioration.
4. (geology) A gradual wearing down or wasting, as of rocks and banks, by the action of water, frost etc.
   • 2017, Nigel Woodcock, Geology and Environment In Britain and Ireland:

     Overexploitation of land for fuelwood is a further cause of soil degradation in Africa, Asia and South America

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.
7. Arrest of development, or degeneration of any organ, or of the body as a whole.

   muscle degradation

8. The gradual breakdown of components of a material, as a result of a natural element, i.e.: heat, cold and wind.

• biodegradation
• chemodegradation
• graceful degradation
• Marker degradation

• (reducing in rank, character, or reputation): comedown
• decomposition

• gradationed