DECAY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Decay

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/dəkˈeɪ/ /dɪkˈeɪ/ Listen

noun

Decay n.

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. "Perhaps my God, though he be far before, May turn, and take me by the hand, and more May strengthen my decays." "His (Johnson's) failure was not to be ascribed to intellectual decay." "Which has caused the decay of the consonants to follow somewhat different laws."

Destruction; death. (Obs.)

Cause of decay. (R.) "He that plots to be the only figure among ciphers, is the decay of the whole age."

Synonyms: Decline; consumption. See Decline.

verb

Decay v. t.

To cause to decay; to impair. (R.) "Infirmity, that decays the wise."

To destroy. (Obs.)

Decay v. i. (past & past part. decayed; pres. part. decaying) 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. "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay."

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Etymology of 'Decay'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Decay" Quotes from Famous Books

... occasionally seen dead bodies placed in their coffins, and one evening he alluded to it, asking me by significant gestures if they would ever open their eyes again. Considering that he had often been present at the interment of the dead, and had also witnessed the decay of animals cast out to perish, it struck me as a singular question, plainly indicating that the consciousness of immortality is natural to man, and unbelief in a future state foreign to his untaught feelings. On the present ...

— Personal Recollections • Charlotte Elizabeth

... defeat and died of wounds. For twenty miles round, in Beit Khalifa, Eski Baghdad, and elsewhere, is one confused huddle of ruins. It is hard to believe that such tawdry magnificence as Harun's successors intermittently brought to the town during the precarious times of Abbasid decay is responsible for all these arches and caverns and tumbled bricks. Major Kenneth Mason, already mentioned as having identified Xenophon's Sittake, has collected good reasons for placing Opis, once the great mart ...

— The Leicestershires beyond Baghdad • Edward John Thompson

... uther syde war lost, Into the feild that dismal day, Chief men of worth, of mekle cost, To be lamentit sair for ay. The Lord Saltoun of Rothemay, A man of micht and mekle main; Grit dolour was for his decay, That ...

— A Collection of Ballads • Andrew Lang

... time we live in now; Our faith and customs from the olden days Are everywhere upon the downward path. Lucky it is that I am growing old; My eyes shall never see the North decay. But you, King Gandalf, you are young and strong; And wheresoe'er you roam in distant lands, Remember that it is a royal task To guard the people and defend ...

— Early Plays - Catiline, The Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans • Henrik Ibsen

... capital as in everything else. Capital is lost and destroyed every day. Lastly, the national capital is growing, and must continue growing, in accordance with the growing capital requirements of the time and the growing number of its inhabitants, or the country will decay. New houses, new factories, new railways, new steamships must be built and new mines be opened to increase the comfort of all. From 200,000,000l. to 300,000,000l. are thus reinvested every year in Great ...

— British Socialism - An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals • J. Ellis Barker

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