Decay

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Decay \De*cay"\, v. t.
     1. To cause to decay; to impair. [R.]
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              Infirmity, that decays the wise.      --Shak.
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     2. To destroy. [Obs.] --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Decay \De*cay"\, n.
     1. Gradual failure of health, strength, soundness,
        prosperity, or of any species of excellence or perfection;
        tendency toward dissolution or extinction; corruption;
        rottenness; decline; deterioration; as, the decay of the
        body; the decay of virtue; the decay of the Roman empire;
        a castle in decay.
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              Perhaps my God, though he be far before,
              May turn, and take me by the hand, and more 
              May strengthen my decays.             --Herbert.
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              His [Johnson's] failure was not to be ascribed to
              intellectual decay.                   --Macaulay.
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              Which has caused the decay of the consonants to
              follow somewhat different laws.       --James Byrne.
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     2. Destruction; death. [Obs.] --Spenser.
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     3. Cause of decay. [R.]
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              He that plots to be the only figure among ciphers,
              is the decay of the whole age.        --Bacon.
  
     Syn: Decline; consumption. See {Decline}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Decay \De*cay"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Decayed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Decaying}.] [OF. decaeir, dechaer, decheoir, F. d['e]choir,
     to decline, fall, become less; L. de- + cadere to fall. See
     {Chance}.]
     To pass gradually from a sound, prosperous, or perfect state,
     to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste
     away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or
     disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes
     decay; hopes decay.
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           Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
           Where wealth accumulates and men decay.  --Goldsmith.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  decay
       n 1: the process of gradually becoming inferior
       2: a gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current [syn: {decline}]
       3: the organic phenomenon of rotting [syn: {decomposition}]
       4: an inferior state resulting from the process of decaying;
          "the corpse was in an advanced state of decay"; "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 [syn: {radioactive
          decay}, {disintegration}]
       v 1: lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current; "the
            particles disintegrated during the nuclear fission
            process" [syn: {disintegrate}, {decompose}]
       2: fall into decay or ruin; "The unoccupied house started to
          decay" [syn: {crumble}, {delapidate}]
       3: undergo decay or decomposition; "The body started to decay
          and needed to be cremated"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  154 Moby Thesaurus words for "decay":
     ablate, ablation, atomization, atomize, atrophy, biodegradability,
     biodegradation, break down, break up, breakup, canker, caries,
     carrion, catalysis, catalyst, collapse, come apart, consume,
     contaminate, corrode, corrosion, corrupt, corruption, crack up,
     crumble, crumble into dust, crumbling, curdle, dandruff,
     debilitate, decadence, decline, decompose, decomposition, decrease,
     defile, degenerate, degeneration, degradability, degradation,
     deteriorate, deterioration, dialysis, dilapidate, dilapidation,
     diminish, disintegrate, disintegration, disjoin, disjunction,
     disorganization, disorganize, dissociation, dissolution, dissolve,
     downfall, dry rot, dwindle, ebb, enfeeble, erode, erosion,
     excrement, fading, failing, fall into decay, fall to pieces,
     ferment, fester, filth, fission, foul matter, foulness, furfur,
     gangrene, go bad, go off, go to pieces, go to pot, go to seed,
     hydrolysis, hydrolyst, incoherence, mess, mildew, mold, molder,
     mortification, mortify, mould, moulder, muck, mucus, necrose,
     necrosis, obscenity, ordure, oxidation, oxidization, perish,
     photolysis, pollute, pus, putrefaction, putrefy, putresce,
     putrescence, putrid matter, putridity, putridness, rancidity,
     rancidness, rankle, rankness, ravages of time, resolution, rot,
     rottenness, rotting, ruin, rust, sap, scurf, scuz, slime, slough,
     smut, snot, sordes, sour, sphacelate, sphacelation, sphacelus,
     split, splitting, spoil, spoilage, suppurate, taint, thermolysis,
     tooth decay, turn, undermine, wane, waste away, wasting, weaken,
     weakening, wear, wear and tear, wear away, wither, work, wreck
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  decay n.,vi [from nuclear physics] An automatic conversion which is
     applied to most array-valued expressions in {C}; they `decay into'
     pointer-valued expressions pointing to the array's first element. This
     term is borderline techspeak, but is not used in the official standard
     for the language.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  decay
       
          [Nuclear physics] An automatic conversion which is applied to
          most array-valued expressions in {C}; they "decay into"
          pointer-valued expressions pointing to the array's first
          element.  This term is not used in the official standard for
          the language.
       
          [{Jargon File}]