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decay
To decay is defined as to rot, lose strength or deteriorate.
(verb)- An example of decay is when old fruit begins to rot.
- An example of decay is when a neighborhood starts to become crime-ridden.
Decay is defined as rotted matter or the state of rotting, deteriorating or declining.
(noun)An example of decay is what has happened to an old abandoned building.
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See decay in Webster's New World College Dictionary
intransitive verb
- to lose strength, soundness, health, beauty, prosperity, etc. gradually; waste away; deteriorate
- to rot or decompose
- to undergo radioactive disintegration spontaneously
Origin: ME decaien < Anglo-Fr & OFr decäir < VL *decadere: see decadence
transitive verb
to cause to decay
noun
- a gradual decline; deterioration
- a wasting away
- a rotting or decomposing, as of vegetable matter
- rottenness
- decayed or rotted matter
- the spontaneous disintegration of radioactive atoms with a resulting decrease in their number
- the spontaneous disintegration of a particle or nucleus, as a meson, baryon, etc., as it changes into a more stable state
See decay in American Heritage Dictionary 4
verb de·cayed, de·cay·ing, de·cays verb, intransitive
- Biology To break down into component parts; rot.
- Physics To disintegrate or diminish by radioactive decay.
- Electronics To decrease gradually in magnitude. Used of voltage or current.
- Aerospace To decrease in orbit. Used of an artificial satellite.
- To fall into ruin: a civilization that had begun to decay.
- Pathology To decline in health or vigor; waste away.
- To decline from a state of normality, excellence, or prosperity; deteriorate.
To cause to decay.
noun- a. The destruction or decomposition of organic matter as a result of bacterial or fungal action; rot.b. Rotted matter.
- Physics Radioactive decay.
- Aerospace The decrease in orbital altitude of an artificial satellite as a result of conditions such as atmospheric drag.
- A gradual deterioration to an inferior state: tooth decay; urban decay.
- A falling into ruin.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English decayen
Origin: , from Old French decair
Origin: , from Vulgar Latin *dēcadere
Origin: : Latin dē-, de-
Origin: + Latin cadere, to fall; see kad- in Indo-European roots
.Related Forms:
- de·cayˈer noun
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