decay
IPA: dʌkˈeɪ
noun
- The process or result of being gradually decomposed.
- A deterioration of condition; loss of status or fortune.
- (obsolete) Overthrow, downfall, ruin.
- (programming) The situation, in programming languages such as C, where an array loses its type and dimensions and is reduced to a pointer, for example by passing it to a function.
verb
- (intransitive) To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
- (intransitive, electronics, of storage media or the data on them) To undergo bit rot, that is, gradual degradation.
- (intransitive, computing, of software) To undergo software rot, that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment, so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.
- (intransitive, physics, of a satellite's orbit) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).
- (intransitive, of organic material) To rot, to go bad.
- (intransitive, transitive, physics, chemistry, of an unstable atom) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons; to undergo radioactive decay.
- (intransitive, transitive, physics, of a quantum system) To undergo optical decay, that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon.
- (intransitive, aviation) Loss of airspeed due to drag.
- (transitive) To cause to rot or deteriorate.
- (programming, intransitive) Of an array: to lose its type and dimensions and be reduced to a pointer, for example when passed to a function.
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Examples of "decay" in Sentences
- The food began to decay slowly.
- The rest of the cemetery decayed.
- Many of the buildings had decayed.
- The apple is decayed several spots.
- A stench of decay rose from the pit.
- This is referred to as incipient decay.
- At the time the castle was in grave decay.
- At the time, the castle was in grave decay.
- Following the closure the line gradually decayed.
- "Limbo" as orbital decay is a fairly recent construction
- Now, what we call decay is really the growth of these fungi.
- The epiphyte then absorbs nutrients it needs from the decaying debris.
- As far as tooth decay is concerned, this is not caused by lack of fluoride.
- Ever wonder why our schools are in decay and our educational system is producing college level students that can't write a complete sentence or compete with Asian scholars?
- Once the sands of an inland sea, about 20 such deposits lie in North America, filled with methane produced by the decay from the bugs, plants and animals that ended up in the ancient ooze.
- As the host (some household name) opens the show, imagine that the white expert opining about the root causes of urban decay is a nationally recognized racist, like for instance, David Duke.
- Tooth decay is caused by acids in your mouth, typically created from sugar being metabolized by bacteria (Streptococcus mutans), and as you may already know, the number-one source of calories in the United States is high fructose corn syrup.
- _Caput mundi; _ but a kind of idiot head at that: inchoate, without co-ordination; maggots scampering through what might have been the brain; the life fled, and that great rebellion of the many lives which we call decay having taken its place.