Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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