as in degenerate
having lost forcefulness, courage, or spirit
he felt rather washed-up after this latest business failure
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of washed-up
Hacks season 5 Five years ago, Ava (Hannah Einbinder) struggled to accept her lot in life when she was hired to be washed-up comedian Deborah Vance's (Jean Smart) new writer.
—
Rebecca Aizin,
PEOPLE,
10 Apr. 2026
The film, about a group of revolutionaries who reunite to help one of their own — Bob Ferguson, a washed-up, paranoid stoner — rescue his daughter from their longtime enemy, has a lot to say about our fraught, divisive reality.
—
Lauren Huff,
Entertainment Weekly,
27 Sep. 2025
Last offseason, the Washington Capitals signed several players seen as washed-up or underachieving.
—
The Christian Science Monitor,
Christian Science Monitor,
7 Apr. 2025
Rebecca Aizin,
PEOPLE,
10 Apr. 2026
The film, about a group of revolutionaries who reunite to help one of their own — Bob Ferguson, a washed-up, paranoid stoner — rescue his daughter from their longtime enemy, has a lot to say about our fraught, divisive reality.
—
Lauren Huff,
Entertainment Weekly,
27 Sep. 2025
Last offseason, the Washington Capitals signed several players seen as washed-up or underachieving.
—
The Christian Science Monitor,
Christian Science Monitor,
7 Apr. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for washed-up
Adjective
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After delivery, the umbilical arteries constrict and degenerate.
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As her life begins overlapping with the events of the film, she’s confronted with her own degenerate desires, as the Nazis would call them.
Adjective
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Discard any that look dead or decayed.
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The farm buildings on the property—long verandas, shearing sheds, and concrete kennels—are old and decayed, remnants from long before the group showed up.
Adjective
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Depressed wages, a weak currency and hyperinflation have continued to make life difficult for ordinary Venezuelans, many of whom struggle to afford basic goods.
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There, the Sox scored on a weak, off-line throw from shallow left fielder José Caballero.
Adjective
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At its proudly overripe heart, the series is a gothic domestic soap—Lifetime themes gussied up in Southern finery.
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But at the end of 2021, S&P profits already looked overripe.
Adjective
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Even when degraded, enzymes have stable backbones that might be capable of catalyzing reactions, said Sudha Rajamani, an astrobiologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune who wasn’t involved in the study.
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According to the company, QTT enables highly secure and resilient position, navigation, and timing (PNT) services, helping maintain accurate timing and synchronization even when traditional GPS and radio-frequency signals are unavailable, degraded, or intentionally jammed.
Adjective
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Republicans have sought to cast him as an effete extremist.
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Scarf critics accuse the accessory—and by extension, its wearers—of being effete or affected.
Adjective
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The casual lunch menu has dishes like crab cakes and roast beef sandwiches, while the Alexander Dobbin dinner menu centers on more decadent eats like lamb chops, veal, and standing beef rib roast.
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The bakery and its decadent creations — rotating flavors like Maple Bacon Glazed, Chocolate Salted Caramel Old-Fashioned, Lime Mascarpone Bismark and the CroDough (croissant doughnut) — made their debut recently at the San Jose center’s Park Valencia.
Cite this Entry
“Washed-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/washed-up. Accessed 1 Jul. 2026.
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