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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

... objects are best fitted to human infirmities. I well know how far in wisdom, in feature, in stature, proportion, beauty, in all the gifts of the mind, thou exceedest my Penelope: she is a mortal, and subject to decay; thou immortal, ever growing, yet never old; yet in her sight all my desires terminate, all my wishes—in the sight of her, and of my country earth. If any god, envious of my return, shall lay his dreadful hand upon me as I ...

— THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES • CHARLES LAMB

... which were wasting away. Their disintegration is identical with our own. They have their decay, their ruptures, their tumors, their madnesses. A piece of furniture gnawed by worms, a gun with a broken trigger, a warped drawer, or the soul of a violin suddenly out of tune, such are the ills which ...

— Romance of the Rabbit • Francis Jammes

... "the sylv' y^t ys about the same hed," which they claim as belonging to the parish on the ground that it was made by the charity of the parishioners in times past. "Our chyrche," they say, "ys in gret ruyn and decay and our toure ys foundered and lyke to fall and ther ys no money left in [o] chyrche box and by reason of great infyrmyty and deth ther hath byn thys yere in oure parysh no chyrche aele, the whych hath hyndred [o] ...

— Bell's Cathedrals: Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory • Thomas Perkins

... for nervous people, ladies, and children he was par excellence the one man to consult. The house adjoining, at the corner of Sudder Street, has always had the reputation of being haunted, and no one would go near the place for years, and it was gradually falling into decay, when one day to the surprise of everybody some natives appeared on the scene and occupied it, and later on Parrott & Co. leased the premises for their whisky agency. Let us hope that the material spirit has had the effect of exorciting ...

— Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century • Montague Massey

... above an inch across may be protected by a coat of good linseed-oil paint; but smaller wounds, if the tree is vigorous, usually require no protection. The object of the paint is to protect the wound from cracking and decay until the healing ...

— Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) • L. H. Bailey

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