[mass noun]the condition or process of degrading or being degraded 降格,降级;退化 a trail of human misery and degradation. 人类痛苦和堕落的痕迹。 ■(Geology)the wearing down of rock by disintegration (地质)陵削,减削
语源
mid 16th cent. (in the sense 'deposition from an office or rank as a punishment'): from Old French, or from ecclesiastical Latin degradatio(n-), from the verb degradare (see degrade)