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n. [ Cf. F. dégénération. ] 1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our degeneration and apostasy. Bates. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Physiol.) That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Biol.) A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The thing degenerated. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Cockle, aracus, . . . and other degenerations. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

Amyloid degeneration,
Caseous degeneration, etc. See under Amyloid, Caseous, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Biol.) A believer in the theory of degeneration, or hereditary degradation of type; as, the degenerationists hold that savagery is the result of degeneration from a superior state. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. generacioun, F. génération, fr.L. generatio. ] 1. The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of animals. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or vital; production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, of gases, of curves, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which is generated or brought forth; progeny; offspiring. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A single step or stage in the succession of natural descent; a rank or remove in genealogy. Hence: The body of those who are of the same genealogical rank or remove from an ancestor; the mass of beings living at one period; also, the average lifetime of man, or the ordinary period of time at which one rank follows another, or father is succeeded by child, usually assumed to be one third of a century; an age. [ 1913 Webster ]

This is the book of the generations of Adam. Gen. v. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye shall remain there [ in Babylon ] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations. Baruch vi. 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

All generations and ages of the Christian church. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Race; kind; family; breed; stock. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a dog? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Geom.) The formation or production of any geometrical magnitude, as a line, a surface, a solid, by the motion, in accordance with a mathematical law, of a point or a magnitude; as, the generation of a line or curve by the motion of a point, of a surface by a line, a sphere by a semicircle, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Biol.) The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which attend reproduction. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ There are four modes of generation in the animal kingdom: scissiparity or by fissiparous generation, gemmiparity or by budding, germiparity or by germs, and oviparity or by ova. [ 1913 Webster ]

Alternate generation (Biol.), alternation of sexual with asexual generation, in which the products of one process differ from those of the other, -- a form of reproduction common both to animal and vegetable organisms. In the simplest form, the organism arising from sexual generation produces offspiring unlike itself, agamogenetically. These, however, in time acquire reproductive organs, and from their impregnated germs the original parent form is reproduced. In more complicated cases, the first series of organisms produced agamogenetically may give rise to others by a like process, and these in turn to still other generations. Ultimately, however, a generation is formed which develops sexual organs, and the original form is reproduced. --
Spontaneous generation (Biol.), the fancied production of living organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters; abiogenesis. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Act of ingenerating. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An unregenerate state. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. progeneratio. ] The act of begetting; propagation. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. regeneratio: cf. F. régéneration. ] 1. The act of regenerating, or the state of being regenerated. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Theol.) The entering into a new spiritual life; the act of becoming, or of being made, Christian; that change by which holy affectations and purposes are substituted for the opposite motives in the heart. [ 1913 Webster ]

He saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Chost. Tit. iii. 5. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Biol.) The reproduction of a part which has been removed or destroyed; re-formation; -- a process especially characteristic of a many of the lower animals; as, the regeneration of lost feelers, limbs, and claws by spiders and crabs. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Physiol.) (a) The reproduction or renewal of tissues, cells, etc., which have been used up and destroyed by the ordinary processes of life; as, the continual regeneration of the epithelial cells of the body, or the regeneration of the contractile substance of muscle. (b) The union of parts which have been severed, so that they become anatomically perfect; as, the regeneration of a nerve. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Unregeneracy. [ 1913 Webster ]