degradation

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe act of reducing in rank, character, or reputation, or of abasing; a lowering from one's standing or rank in office or society

   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.

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

   Synonyms: abasement

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

   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.

   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

   1 more example

   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.

   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

   Synonyms: debauchment, depravement, perversion, abasement, adulteration, corruption, debasement, debauchment

3. countableuncountableDiminution or reduction of strength, efficacy, or value; degeneration; deterioration.

   […] for it could not be expected that a class condemned to increasing degradation of mind and body would be able to bring about the greatest revolution in history, including not only economic changes but the efflorescence of art and civilization.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 366

   1 more example

   The extent of the damage to the military is still unclear and disputed, but the repeated bombings of the army and revolutionary guard bases and installations suggests substantial degradation of Iran's military power. Militarisation had long consumed a vast amount of the nation's resources.

   2025 June 26, Kasra Naji, “When Iran's supreme leader emerges from hiding he will find a very different nation”, in BBC

   Synonyms: debasement, worsening, aggravation, corruption, debasement, degeneration, deterioration, devolution

In a sentence

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.

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

Where it comes from

1. Frenchdégradation
2. Englishdegradation

From French dégradation. Morphologically degrade + -ation.