Result from Foreign Dictionaries (5 entries 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.] [1913 Webster] Infirmity, that decays the wise. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. To destroy. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] Perhaps my God, though he be far before, May turn, and take me by the hand, and more May strengthen my decays. --Herbert. [1913 Webster] His [Johnson's] failure was not to be ascribed to intellectual decay. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] Which has caused the decay of the consonants to follow somewhat different laws. --James Byrne. [1913 Webster] 2. Destruction; death. [Obs.] --Spenser. [1913 Webster] 3. Cause of decay. [R.] [1913 Webster] He that plots to be the only figure among ciphers, is the decay of the whole age. --Bacon. Syn: Decline; consumption. See {Decline}. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. --Goldsmith. [1913 Webster] From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: decay n 1: the process of gradually becoming inferior 2: a gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current [syn: {decay}, {decline}] 3: the organic phenomenon of rotting [syn: {decay}, {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: {decay}, {radioactive decay}, {disintegration}] v 1: lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current; "the particles disintegrated during the nuclear fission process" [syn: {disintegrate}, {decay}, {decompose}] 2: fall into decay or ruin; "The unoccupied house started to decay" [syn: {decay}, {crumble}, {dilapidate}] 3: undergo decay or decomposition; "The body started to decay and needed to be cremated" From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [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.