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Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class V. Words Releasing to the Voluntary Powers
Division (I) Individual Volition
Section II. Prospective Volition
2. Degree of Subservience

659. Deterioration.

   NOUN:DETERIORATION, debasement; wane, ebb; recession [See Recession]; retrogradation [See Regression]; decrease [See Nonincrease, Decrease].
  DEGENERACY, degeneration, degenerateness; degradation; depravation, depravement [rare], depravedness; devolution; depravity [See Vice]; demoralization, retrogression; masochism.
  IMPAIRMENT, inquination [obs.], injury, damage, loss, detriment, delaceration [obs.], outrage, havoc, inroad, ravage, scathe, scath [dial.], perversion, prostitution, vitiation, discoloration, pollution, defœdation, poisoning, venenation [rare], leaven, contamination, canker, corruption, adulteration, alloy.
  DECLINE, declension, declination; decadence or decadency; falling off &c. v.; caducity [rare], senility, decrepitude.
  DECAY, dilapidation, ravages of time, wear and tear; erosion, corrosion, moldiness or mouldiness; rottenness; moth and rust, dry rot, blight, marcescence, marasmus, atrophy, collapse; disorganization; délabrement [F.] (destruction) [See Destruction]; aphid, aphis (pl. aphides), plant louse; vine fretter, vine grub; gypsy (or gipsy) moth; buffalo carpet beetle (injurious insects) [See Evildoer].
  WRECK, mere wreck, honeycomb, magni nominis umbra [L.], jade, rackabones [U. S.], skate [U. S.]; tacky or tackey [Southern U. S.], plug [slang or colloq., U. S.].
   VERB:DETERIORATE; be -, become- -worse, – deteriorated &c. adj.; have seen better days, degenerate, fall off; wane (decrease) [See Nonincrease, Decrease]; ebb; retrograde [See Regression]; decline, droop; go down (sink) [See Descent]; go downhill, go on from bad to worse, go farther and fare worse; jump out of the frying pan into the fire; avoid Scylla and fall into Charybdis.
  run to -seed, – waste; swale [obs.], sweal [obs.]; lapse, be the worse for; sphacelate; break, break down; spring a leak, crack, start; shrivel (contract) [See Contraction]; fade, go off, wither, molder or moulder, rot, rankle, decay, go bad; go to -, fall into- decay; fall “into the sere, the yellow leaf” [Macbeth]; rust, crumble, shake; totter, – to its fall; perish [See Destruction]; die [See Death].
  [RENDER LESS GOOD] deteriorate; weaken [See Weakness]; put back; taint, infect, contaminate, poison, empoison, envenom, canker, corrupt, exulcerate [obs.], pollute, vitiate, inquinate [obs.], debase, embase [obs.]; denaturalize, leaven; deflower, debauch, defile, deprave, degrade; ulcerate; stain (dirt) [See Uncleanness]; discolor; alloy, adulterate, sophisticate, tamper with, prejudice.
  PERVERT, prostitute, demoralize, brutalize; render vicious [See Vice].
  EMBITTER, acerbate, exacerbate, aggravate.
  INJURE, impair, labefy [rare], damage, harm, hurt, shend, scath [dial.], scathe, spoil, mar, despoil, dilapidate, waste; overrun; ravage; pillage [See Stealing].
  wound, stab, pierce, maim, lame, surbate [obs.], cripple, hock or hough, hamstring, hit between wind and water, scotch, mangle, mutilate, disfigure, blemish, deface, warp.
  BLIGHT, rot; corrode, erode; wear away, wear out; gnaw, – at the root of; sap, mine, undermine, shake, sap the foundations of, break up; disorganize, dismantle, dismast; destroy [See Destruction].
  DAMNIFY (aggrieve) [See Badness]; do one’s worst; knock down; deal a blow to; play -havoc, – sad havoc, – the mischief [colloq.], – the deuce [colloq.], – the very devil [colloq.]- -with, – among; decimate.
   ADJECTIVE:DETERIORATED &c. v.; altered, – for the worse; unimproved &c. (improve [See Improvement]); injured &c. v.; sprung; withering, spoiling &c. v.; on the -wane, – decline; tabid; degenerate; worse; the -, all the- worse for; out of -repair, – tune; imperfect [See Imperfection]; the worse for wear; battered; weathered, weather-beaten; stale, passé [F.], shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, thread- bare; worn, – to- -a thread, – a shadow, – the stump, – rags; reduced, – to a skeleton; far-gone; tacky [colloq. or slang].
  DECAYED &c. v.; moth-eaten, worm-eaten; mildewed, rusty, moldy or mouldy, spotted, seedy [colloq.], time-worn, moss-grown; discolored; effete, wasted, crumbling, moldering or mouldering, rotten, cankered, blighted, marcescent, tainted; depraved (vicious) [See Vice]; decrepit; broken-down; done, – for, – up [all colloq.]; worn-out, used up [colloq.]; fit for the -dust hole, – waste-paper basket; past work (useless) [See Inutility].
  AT A LOW EBB, in a bad way, on one’s last legs; undermined, deciduous; nodding to its fall (destruction) [See Destruction]; tottering (dangerous) [See Danger]; past cure (hopeless) [See Hopelessness]; washed out, run down; fatigued [See Fatigue]; unprogressive, improgressive [rare], backward, stagnant, behind the times; retrograde (retrogressive) [See Regression]; deleterious [See Badness].
   ADVERB:ON THE DOWN GRADE, on the downward track; beyond hope.
   QUOTATIONS:
  1. Ægrescit medendo.
  2. What a falling off was there!—Hamlet
  3. Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen!—Julius Cæsar
  4. Fuimus Troës, fuit Ilium.—Vergil