What is a really good antonym for "improve"?

Question

I'm a software developer and I'm continually faced with efforts on the part of other developers to "improve" software that I'm involved in maintaining. But from my point of view, often the things they do have the opposite effect on the software.

There is no truly apropos word. "Impoverished" isn't right. "Transform" isn't either. Neither is "transmogify". I need some really much stronger version of "deprove."

• "Worsen" isn't really the right word, because that kind of implies that the software was bad to begin with. The reality is a worse tragedy than that, because the software was perfectly good before!
• "Destroy" isn't really right, because the software still exists. So the reality is actually worse tragedy than that, because now we have this awful software to contend with. If they'd "destroyed" it, we could build something as good or better.
• "Tainted" isn't really right, because that implies it's mostly still perfectly good, it just has some small part of it that is bad, when the reality is that it is now entirely bad.

I need a single word for the act of taking something perfectly good and turning it into something awful. "Monstrousize"? "Frankenate"?

---

Hey, thanks so much for the responses!

Ok, I'm afraid I let my emotions run away with me and I asked this question badly.

What I'm actually looking for is a word that really functions as a direct opposite for "improve." A word that implies nothing about the initial state or the final state, but only implies something about the direction of the change.

"Ruin", "break", "spoil", etc., all kind of imply good things about the initial state and bad things about the final state. I'm looking for something like "worsen," but even "worsen" kind of implies that the state was bad to begin with. "It's condition was worsened by the changes" could be construed to imply that the condition wasn't great to begin with. "Improve" doesn't imply that the initial state was good or bad, it just comments on the direction of the change.

Answer 1

I suggest 'degrade', e.g.

"Developers very often degrade the software when their intention is to improve it."

"Software decay is a key concern for large, long-lived software projects. Systems degrade over time as design and implementation compromises and exceptions pile up."

An Empirical Study of Design Degradation: How Software Projects Get Worse over Time https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7321186

In fact there is a humorous/sarcastic term commonly used by software developers but I can't remember it! I suggest you ask on a specialist computing site.

Answer 2

The word I'd suggest is ruin. Dictionaries list it as a synonym of "destroy" (which is true), but it's a bit more nuanced than that. In particular, what makes it good for the context you're describing is that ruining something doesn't have to obliterate it (although it can). It's also used to describe situations where something used to be good but is now bad. It's also used to describe situations where something is made significantly less enjoyable, such as when we say that a plot hole ruined a movie.

Some pretty good examples specifically about software are:

• iPhone users say iOS 12 update has ‘ruined’ their screen with ‘washed out’ colours
• Oreo update ruined my phone — The author is upset about "a horrible design choice": The black theme is now white and the one app that changed the color of the screen for nighttime doesn't work.
• "update" ruined my Samsung:

  • Has anyone else experienced a whopping 90 minute "update" from Samsung only to find they had changed your phone so much it's not yours anymore?

Answer 3

"Mangle", "mess up", and "screw up" are appropriate in this context. "Screw up" is less polite than "mess up".

"Disimprove" might be the closest to an exact opposite of "improve". "Deprove" seems more like "removing a proof" than "make a negative improvement".

Answer 4

I think the direct antonym to "improve" would be deteriorate. In the specific context of documenting software changes that make the software worse, other options could be hinder, harm, or depreciate. For a less formal term, you could also use nerf, which is common in gaming communities to describe reducing the power of a weapon, spell, ability, etc.

Function is deteriorated by these changes.

These changes are intended to improve the program, but they often hinder more than they help.

These changes are intended to improve the program, but often do more harm than good.

These changes are intended to improve the program, but often depreciate it instead.

These changes are intended to improve the program, but often nerf key features or performance instead.

Answer 5

If you improve something, you make it better. The opposite of that would be to break something.

From among the many senses of Merriam-Webster's definition of break, are the following:

1 e : to render inoperable
// broke his watch
17 : to ruin the prospects of
// could make or break her career

As such, the software that used to work well could now considered to be broken in terms of practical usefulness..

Answer 6

How about "spoil":

to cause damage to (something), in regard to its value, beauty, usefulness, etc

E.g.

Now is the time for improving or spoiling herself.;

Here again the computer spoils things rather than helps.;

Apart from anything else, there is a risk of spoiling what we already have.