different between degraded vs irreclaimable

English

Etymology

See degrade and compare French degré (“step”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d????e?d?d/

Adjective

degraded (comparative more degraded, superlative most degraded)

1. Feeling or having undergone degradation; deprived of dignity or self-respect.

   • The Netherlands […] were reduced, practically, to a very degraded condition.

2. (biology) Having the typical characters or organs in a partially developed condition, or lacking certain parts.
   • 1852, James Dwight Dana, Crustacaea

     The Grapsoid species are represented of a degraded form in Porcellana

3. (heraldry, not comparable) Having steps; said of a cross whose extremities end in steps growing larger as they leave the centre; on degrees.

Synonyms

• (deprived of dignity): humiliated

Translations

Verb

degraded

1. simple past tense and past participle of degrade

English

Etymology

ir- +? reclaimable

Adjective

irreclaimable

1. Incapable of being reclaimed; not reclaimable.

   irreclaimable land

2. Unredeemable.

   an irreclaimable criminal

   • 1836, Grantley Berkeley, Berkeley Castle: An Historical Romance (volume 1, page 174)

     Even then, Wingfield endeavoured to retain the hawk by the substitution of another — young Kate, as he called her, a wild, raking bird as ever flew, whose kitish propensities had, some time before, led him to give her up as irreclaimable.

Derived terms

• irreclaimably

References

• irreclaimable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• irreclaimable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.