decay
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈkeɪ/
rhymes: -eɪ
enpr: dē-kāʹ
ipa: /diˈkeɪ/
Forms: form: decays
form: decaying
form: decayed
form: decayed
Etymology: From Middle English decayen, dekeyen (“to decrease, diminish”), from Anglo-Norman decaeir (“to fall away, decay, decline”), from Vulgar Latin *dēcadere, etymologically restored form of Latin dēcidere (“to fall away, fail, sink, perish”), from de (“down”) + cadere (“to fall”). Compare decadent and decadence.
Senses: examples: text: The pair loved to take pictures in the decaying hospital on forty-third street.
glosses: To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
To undergo bit rot, that is, gradual degradation.
raw_tags: of storage media or the data on them
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
To undergo software rot, that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment, so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.
raw_tags: of software
examples: text: Damaged on lift-off, Skylab was left in orbit until its orbit decayed.
ref: 2009, Francis Lyall, Paul B. Larsen, Space Law: A Treatise, page 120:
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).
raw_tags: of a satellite's orbit
examples: text: The cat's body decayed rapidly.
glosses: To rot, to go bad.
raw_tags: of organic material
examples: text: Uranium decays to radium through a long series of steps with a cumulative half-life of 4.4 billion years.
ref: 2005, Encyclopedia of Earth Science, edited by Timothy M. Kusky, →ISBN, page 349:
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons; to undergo radioactive decay.
raw_tags: of an unstable atom
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: To undergo optical decay, that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon.
raw_tags: of a quantum system
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Loss of airspeed due to drag.
examples: text: The extreme humidity decayed the wooden sculptures in the museum's collection in a matter of years.
text: Infirmity, that decays the wise.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
glosses: To cause to rot or deteriorate.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: Of an array: to lose its type and dimensions and be reduced to a pointer, for example when passed to a function.
Synonyms: fester
Derived terms: nondecaying
semidecaying
undecaying