4. (Geol.) A gradual wearing down or wasting, as of rocks and banks, by the action of water, frost etc.
5. (Biol.) The state or condition of a species or group which exhibits degraded forms; degeneration.
The degradation of the species man is observed in some of its varieties.
Dana.
6. (Physiol.) Arrest of development, or degeneration of any organ, or of the body as a whole.
Degradation of energy, or Dissipation of energy (Physics), the transformation of energy into some form in which it is less available for doing work.
Syn. -- Abasement; debasement; reduction; decline.
De*grade" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Degraded; p. pr. & vb. n. Degrading.] [F. dégrader, LL. degradare, fr. L. de- + gradus step, degree. See Grade, and cf. Degree.] 1. To reduce from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to lower in rank; to deprive of office or dignity; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, or a general officer.
Prynne was sentenced by the Star Chamber Court to be degraded from the bar.
Palfrey.
2. To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man.
O miserable mankind, to what fall
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
Milton.
Yet time ennobles or degrades each line.
Pope.
Her pride . . . struggled hard against this degrading passion.
Macaulay.
3. (Geol.) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.
Syn. -- To abase; demean; lower; reduce. See Abase.
De*grade", v. i. (Biol.) To degenerate; to pass from a higher to a lower type of structure; as, a family of plants or animals degrades through this or that genus or group of genera.
De*grad"ed (?), a. 1. Reduced in rank, character, or reputation; debased; sunken; low; base.
The Netherlands . . . were reduced practically to a very degraded condition.
Motley.
2. (Biol.) Having the typical characters or organs in a partially developed condition, or lacking certain parts.
Some families of plants are degraded dicotyledons.
Dana.
3. [Cf. F. degré step.] (Her.) Having steps; -- said of a cross each of whose extremities finishes in steps growing larger as they leave the center; -- termed also on degrees.
De*grade"ment (?), n. Deprivation of rank or office; degradation. [R.] Milton.
De*grad"ing*ly, adv. In a degrading manner.
Deg`ra*va"tion (?), n. [L. degravare, degravatum, to make heavy. See Grave, a.] The act of making heavy. [Obs.] Bailey.
De*gree" (?), n. [F. degré, OF. degret, fr. LL. degradare. See Degrade.] 1. A step, stair, or staircase. [Obs.]
By ladders, or else by degree.
Rom. of R.
2. One of a series of progressive steps upward or downward, in quality, rank, acquirement, and the like; a stage in progression; grade; gradation; as, degrees of vice and virtue; to advance by slow degrees; degree of comparison.
3. The point or step of progression to which a person has arrived; rank or station in life; position. "A dame of high degree." Dryden. "A knight is your degree." Shak. "Lord or lady of high degree." Lowell.
4. Measure of advancement; quality; extent; as, tastes differ in kind as well as in degree.
The degree of excellence which proclaims genius, is different in different times and different places.
Sir. J. Reynolds.
5. Grade or rank to which scholars are admitted by a college or university, in recognition of their attainments; as, the degree of bachelor of arts, master, doctor, etc.
In the United States diplomas are usually given as the evidence of a degree conferred. In the humanities the first degree is that of bachelor of arts (B. A. or A. B.); the second that of master of arts (M. A. or A. M.). The degree of bachelor (of arts, science, divinity, law, etc.) is conferred upon those who complete a prescribed course of undergraduate study. The first degree in medicine is that of doctor of medicine (M. D.). The degrees of master and doctor are sometimes conferred, in course, upon those who have completed certain prescribed postgraduate studies, as doctor of philosophy (Ph. D.); but more frequently the degree of doctor is conferred as a complimentary recognition of eminent services in science or letters, or for public services or distinction (as doctor of laws (LL. D.) or doctor of divinity (D. D.), when they are called honorary degrees.
The youth attained his bachelor's degree, and left the university.
Macaulay.
6. (Genealogy) A certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood; one remove in the chain of relationship; as, a relation in the third or fourth degree.
In the 11th century an opinion began to gain ground in Italy, that third cousins might marry, being in the seventh degree according to the civil law.
Hallam.
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7. (Arith.) Three figures taken together in numeration; thus, 140 is one degree, 222,140 two degrees.
8. (Algebra) State as indicated by sum of exponents; more particularly, the degree of a term is indicated by the sum of the exponents of its literal factors; thus, a2b3c is a term of the sixth degree. The degree of a power, or radical, is denoted by its index, that of an equation by the greatest sum of the exponents of the unknown quantities in any term; thus, ax4 + bx2 = c, and mx2y2 + nyx = p, are both equations of the fourth degree.
9. (Trig.) A 360th part of the circumference of a circle, which part is taken as the principal unit of measure for arcs and angles. The degree is divided into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds.
10. A division, space, or interval, marked on a mathematical or other instrument, as on a thermometer. 11. (Mus.) A line or space of the staff.
The short lines and their spaces are added degrees.
Accumulation of degrees. (Eng. Univ.) See under Accumulation. -- By degrees, step by step; by little and little; by moderate advances. "I'll leave it by degrees." Shak. -- Degree of a curve or surface (Geom.), the number which expresses the degree of the equation of the curve or surface in rectilinear coördinates. A straight line will, in general, meet the curve or surface in a number of points equal to the degree of the curve or surface and no more. -- Degree of latitude (Geog.), on the earth, the distance on a meridian between two parallels of latitude whose latitudes differ from each other by one degree. This distance is not the same on different parts of a meridian, on account of the flattened figure of the earth, being 68.702 statute miles at the equator, and 69.396 at the poles. -- Degree of longitude, the distance on a parallel of latitude between two meridians that make an angle of one degree with each other at the poles -- a distance which varies as the cosine of the latitude, being at the equator 69.16 statute miles. -- To a degree, to an extreme; exceedingly; as, mendacious to a degree.
It has been said that Scotsmen . . . are . . . grave to a degree on occasions when races more favored by nature are gladsome to excess.
Prof. Wilson.
||De"gu (?), n. [Native name.] (Zoöl.) A small South American rodent (Octodon Cumingii), of the family Octodontidæ.
De*gust" (?), v. t. [L. degustare: cf. F. déguster. See Gust to taste.] To taste. [Obs.] Cockeram.
Deg`us*ta"tion (?), n. [L. degustatio: cf. F. dégustation.] (Physiol.) Tasting; the appreciation of sapid qualities by the taste organs. Bp. Hall.
De*hisce" (?), v. i. [L. dehiscere; de- + hiscere to gape.] To gape; to open by dehiscence.
De*his"cence (?), n. [Cf. F. déhiscence.] 1. The act of gaping.
2. (Biol.) A gaping or bursting open along a definite line of attachment or suture, without tearing, as in the opening of pods, or the bursting of capsules at maturity so as to emit seeds, etc.; also, the bursting open of follicles, as in the ovaries of animals, for the expulsion of their contents.
De*his"cent (?), a. [L. dehiscens, -entis, p. pr. Cf. F. déhiscent.] Characterized by dehiscence; opening in some definite way, as the capsule of a plant.
De`ho*nes"tate (?), v. t. [L. dehonestatus, p. p. of dehonestare to dishonor; de- + honestare to make honorable. Cf. Dishonest, and see Honest.] To disparage. [Obs.]
De*hon`es*ta"tion (?), n. [L. dehonestatio.] A dishonoring; disgracing. [Obs.] Gauden.
De*horn" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dehorned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Dehorning.] To deprive of horns; to prevent the growth of the horns of (cattle) by burning their ends soon after they start. See Dishorn. "Dehorning cattle." Farm Journal (1886).
||De*hors" (?), prep. [F., outside.] (Law) Out of; without; foreign to; out of the agreement, record, will, or other instrument.
||De*hors", n. (Mil.) All sorts of outworks in general, at a distance from the main works; any advanced works for protection or cover. Farrow.
De*hort" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dehorted; p. pr. & vb. n. Dehorting.] [L. dehortari; de- + hortari to urge, exhort.] To urge to abstain or refrain; to dissuade. [Obs.]
The apostles vehemently dehort us from unbelief.
Bp. Ward.
"Exhort" remains, but dehort, a word whose place neither "dissuade" nor any other exactly supplies, has escaped us.
Trench.
De`hor*ta"tion (?), n. [L. dehortatio.] Dissuasion; advice against something. [R.]