Deteriorate

//dɪˈtɪə.ɹɪə.ɹeɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair. transitive

    "to deteriorate the mind"

  2. 2
    grow progressively worse wordnet
  3. 3
    To grow worse; to be impaired in quality; to degenerate. intransitive

    "During this fine run through Fife the weather had deteriorated rapidly, and as we passed Wormit and came onto the Tay Bridge heavy rain clouds were piled over the sea."

  4. 4
    become worse or disintegrate wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
degeneratedegenerateweakenworsensufferagent provocateur

Example

More examples

"The situation may deteriorate at any time."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin dēteriorātus, perfect passive participle of Late Latin dēteriorō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), further from Latin dēterior (“worse”). Cognate with French détériorer.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.