Previously in the years of the Wanli Emperor (1573-1619) of the Ming Dynasty, ceramics under government sponsorship slowly degenerated in quality until production itself was abandoned.

But half the site was sliced off when Atlanta's subway was built and the rest slowly degenerated into a seedy, crime-ridden hangout for youthful revelers until it closed in 1980.

During mid-May, a frontal boundary stalled near The Bahamas and slowly degenerated.

Most of the crew members are dead, Nick's fiancee is trapped on the far side of the base, and he soon discovers that the entire station is slowly degenerating into an alien hive.

As the affluent tenants embark upon an orgy of destruction, Ballard tells the story of how the whole block slowly degenerates into anarchy.

It was also slowly degenerating as the power of magic dwindled in the face of an early flowering of iron-working, meteoric iron being the bane of magic.

His blindness was a slowly degenerating process, and even his closest aides are not sure when he lost all sight.

The country slowly degenerated into civil war, and Doe was himself killed in the same mansion in which he killed Tolbert.

With the gradual decline of Norwich as a centre of the weaving industry in the 19th Century, Elm Hill lost its importance and slowly degenerated into a slum area.

The scrawled list in her hand was slowly degenerating into pulp.