Verb
To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair; as, to deteriorate the mind.
To grow worse; to be impaired in quality; to degenerate.
Source: Webster's dictionaryIf man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat. Mark Twain
They look quite promising in the shop, and not entirely without hope when I get them back into my wardrobe. But then, when I put them on they tend to deteriorate with a very strange rapidity and one feels sorry for them. Joyce Grenfell
Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat. Mark Twain
If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people. Eleanor Roosevelt
The man who has allowed his body to deteriorate cuts a pitiful figure - chest collapsed, stomach protruding. Gene Tunney
Alzheimer's is a devastating disease. It was painful for me and my family to watch my grandfather deteriorate. We must find a cure for this horrible disease. David Hyde Pierce