Pervert vs Degenerate - What's the difference?
pervert | degenerate |
(dated) One who has been perverted; one who has turned to error; one who has turned to a twisted sense of values or morals.
A person whose sexual habits are not considered acceptable.
To turn another way; to divert.
* Shakespeare
To turn from truth, rectitude, or propriety; to divert from a right use, end, or way; to lead astray; to corrupt.
* Milton
* {{quote-news
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To misapply; to misinterpret designedly.
To become perverted; to take the wrong course.
(of qualities) Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.
* Shakespeare
* Jonathan Swift
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
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(of a human or system) Having lost good or desirable qualities.
(of an encoding or function) Having multiple domain elements correspond to one element of the range.
(mathematics) A degenerate case is a limiting case in which a class of object changes its nature so as to belong to another, usually simpler, class.
(physics) Having the same quantum energy level.
One is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature.
To lose good or desirable qualities.
* 1870 , Shirley Hibberd, Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste (page 170)
To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.
In transitive terms the difference between pervert and degenerate
is that pervert is to turn from truth, rectitude, or propriety; to divert from a right use, end, or way; to lead astray; to corrupt while degenerate is to cause to lose good or desirable qualities.In intransitive terms the difference between pervert and degenerate
is that pervert is to become perverted; to take the wrong course while degenerate is to lose good or desirable qualities.As an adjective degenerate is
(of qualities) Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.pervert
English
(wikipedia pervert)Noun
(en noun)- Those perverts were trying to spy on us while we changed clothes!
Usage notes
* In contemporary usage, pervert is usually understood to refer to a sexually perverted person. Traditionally the word was mainly associated with persons of false religious beliefs.Synonyms
* (sexually perverted person) deviant, perv (slang)Antonyms
* convert (religious)Verb
(en verb)- Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath.
- He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve.
citation, page= , passage=A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "We can confirm that a 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of Jodi Jones. A 45-year-old has also been arrested in connection with allegations of attempting to pervert the course of justice. A report on this has been sent to the procurator fiscal." }}
- pervert one's words
- (Testament of Love)
Synonyms
* (turn another way) divert, steer, veer * corrupt, lead astray * misapply, misuse * (take the wrong course)degenerate
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- faint-hearted and degenerate king
- degenerate from their ancient blood
citation, passage=It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.}}
- ''The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.
Derived terms
* (physics) degenerate matterNoun
(en noun)- You are a degenerate , boy. You're a disgrace to your ancestors.
Verb
(degenerat)- His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.
- Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated , and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.