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Decay   /dəkˈeɪ/  /dɪkˈeɪ/   Listen
Decay

noun
1.
The process of gradually becoming inferior.
2.
A gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current.  Synonym: decline.
3.
The organic phenomenon of rotting.  Synonym: decomposition.
4.
An inferior state resulting from the process of decaying.  "The house had fallen into a serious state of decay and disrepair"
5.
The spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance along with the emission of ionizing radiation.  Synonyms: disintegration, radioactive decay.
verb
(past & past part. decayed; pres. part. decaying)
1.
Lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current.  Synonyms: decompose, disintegrate.
2.
Fall into decay or ruin.  Synonyms: crumble, dilapidate.
3.
Undergo decay or decomposition.



Related searches:
alpha decay
beta decay
exponential decay
radioactive decay
tooth decay


WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


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"Decay" Quotes from Famous Books



... not {197} on that account be mistaken for the achievement; leisure may be made a worthy pastime through the cultivation of the sensibilities, but it must not be substituted for vocation, or allowed to infect a serious purpose with decay. ...
— The Moral Economy • Ralph Barton Perry
... gold, But pale with ague-fears— A Wife lamenting love's decay, With secret cruel tears, Distilling bitter, bitter drops ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood
... his debts swallowed up everything. It was a wretched stormy day when the pictures were sold, and Mr. Graves secured, at very moderate prices, five original portraits. All the paintings had suffered more or less decay, and some of them, with their frames, had fallen to the floor. One of the best preserved pictures inherited by the late Marquis was a portrait of Pope, painted from life by Richardson for the Earl of Burlington, and even that had been allowed to drop out of its oaken frame. Horace Walpole ...
— Yesterdays with Authors • James T. Fields
... is everywhere. Even nature is full of evidence of a bad break in all of its processes. The finger-marks of decay and death are below and above and all around in all its domain. That is sin's unmistakable ear-mark. Man's mental powers, and his loss of a full knowledge of his powers, tell the same story. And so there is need. Everywhere you turn need's pathetic face, drawn and white, ...
— Quiet Talks with World Winners • S. D. Gordon
... this objection has little weight. Chateaubriand was seventy-nine; Madame Recamier seventy. The former was tottering on the brink of the grave. He had lost the use of his limbs, and his mind was visibly failing. Madame Recamier was keenly sensible of the decay of his faculties, though she succeeded so well in concealing the fact from others that few of the habitual visitors at the Abbaye recognized its extent. The reason she gave to her friends for refusing him was ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 84, October, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various


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