Q. I'm wondering whether I used a word wrongly or not.
Ok, here's the sentence: "I didn't realize conversation could degrade to such an extent ..."
I don't mean people are degraded by the conversation,
but conversation itself. Note: This was after we heard people discuss doing obscene things to toasters and ovens, cakes, and cigarettes.
A. I think the sentence is all right. "Degrade" is a verb that can take a direct object, but it doesn't have to. Where your sentence doesn't have a direct object, it seems clear that you are talking about conversation being degraded, not conversation degrading something else.
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