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Pusillanimous vs Degenerate - What's the difference?

pusillanimous | degenerate | Related terms |

Pusillanimous is a related term of degenerate.


As adjectives the difference between pusillanimous and degenerate

is that pusillanimous is showing ignoble cowardice, or contemptible timidity while degenerate is (of qualities) having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.

As a noun degenerate is

one is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature.

As a verb degenerate is

to lose good or desirable qualities.

pusillanimous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Showing ignoble cowardice, or contemptible timidity
    • The soldier deserted his troop in a pusillanimous manner.
  • * 1882 — , On the Decay of the Art of Lying [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2572/2572.txt].
    • Therefore, the wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie for others' advantage, and not our own; to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously; to lie gracefully and graciously, not awkwardly and clumsily; to lie firmly, frankly, squarely, with head erect, not haltingly, tortuously, with pusillanimous mien, as being ashamed of our high calling.

    Related terms

    * pusillanimously * pusillanimousness

    degenerate

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (of qualities) Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal, coherent, balanced and desirable to undesirable and typically abnormal.
  • * Shakespeare
    • faint-hearted and degenerate king
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • degenerate from their ancient blood
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
    • , author= , title=The Smallest Cell , volume=101, issue=2, page=83 , magazine= 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.}}
  • (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.
    • ''The genetic code is degenerate because a single amino acid can be coded by one of several codons.
  • (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.

    • Derived terms

    * (physics) degenerate matter

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One is degenerate, who has fallen from previous stature.
    • You are a degenerate , boy. You're a disgrace to your ancestors.

    Verb

    (degenerat)
  • To lose good or desirable qualities.
    • His condition continued to degenerate even after admission to hospital.
  • * 1870 , Shirley Hibberd, Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste (page 170)
    • 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.
  • To cause to lose good or desirable qualities.

    • Derived terms

    * degeneration

    External links

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