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decay
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
decay
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
dental disease/problems/decay etc
tooth decay
▪ Brushing regularly helps prevent tooth decay.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
begin
▪ These isotopes begin to decay as soon as the meteorites enter the Earth's atmosphere, where they become shielded from cosmic rays.
▪ The vegetation within, protected from the dry air, begins to decay and the mound starts to warm.
▪ The elementary particles known as protons, which live at the heart of every atom, will begin to decay.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Freezing conditions will stop most things from decaying.
▪ If you eat too many sweets, it'll make your teeth decay.
▪ In a warm climate where flesh decays rapidly, there is more risk of infection from dead animals.
▪ Some of the apples lying on the ground had already begun to decay.
▪ The decaying body of a man was found in a vacant warehouse.
▪ the decaying moral values of American society
▪ This decaying city was once the busiest port in the world.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A few species laid eggs beneath mounds of rotten vegetation that warmed as it decayed.
▪ Bones signify the eternal being which does not decay.
▪ However, objects decay despite our best efforts to conserve them.
▪ In one path, the 40K decays to a calcium isotope, 40Ca.
▪ It decays by a scheme that has two paths.
▪ Now even elections seem to be decaying.
▪ The buildings still stand, slowly decaying, without past or future, or any links with the surrounding land.
▪ There was now not the slightest doubt that Hsu was decaying and losing her structural integrity.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
dental
▪ More than half have dental decay in their milk teeth, and she believes that the problem is increasing.
▪ Hypoplastic teeth with advanced dental decay are also observed.
▪ We found no association between extent of active dental decay and risk of coronary heart disease.
▪ My father, a dentist of the old school, believed that milk encouraged dental decay.
▪ A fluoride mouth wash will help to prevent dental decay.
▪ Water fluoridation costing £260,000 is to restart to protect against dental decay in the region.
moral
▪ Amid this moral decay, religious, ethnic and caste crusades have a growing appeal.
▪ D., there began to appear on the Roman horizon disturbing signs of cultural decline and moral decay.
▪ But he insisted that organized religion needed to meet the challenge of social unrest and moral decay.
radioactive
▪ Like all types of radioactive decay the process takes place at a constant rate, independent of all environmental conditions.
▪ The ratios change over time as potassium undergoes radioactive decay and emits argon gas.
▪ One becquerel is equal to one radioactive decay per second.
▪ Antimatter is also produced by radioactive decay.
▪ The time taken for half of the atoms of a radioactive isotope to decay is called its half-life.
▪ Helium is also made by radioactive decay of uranium and thorium, both of which decay by emission of alpha particles.
▪ This is a dating method based on the radioactive decay of isotopes of uranium.
▪ This helium produced by radioactive decay, called radiogenic helium, consists of pure 4He.
urban
▪ Below us was the battle zone, 464 square miles of urban decay, whose every street was a border to some one.
▪ However as the number of jobs in Vickers decreased the area underwent serious urban decay.
▪ One can forget about the problems of urban decay even yet up there.
■ NOUN
beta
▪ The neutrino is produced in the beta decay of nuclei, when a neutron converts into a proton, and an electron.
rate
▪ Then the observable quantity, the orbital decay rate. is.
▪ As soon as the sample is removed from the vicinity of the main mass, its decay rate drops.
▪ The excellent agreement between the predicted and observed orbital decay rates has a double significance.
▪ Generally speaking, instability thresholds are lower than in the quasi-Lorenz system, and the restrictions on decay rates less severe.
▪ This slow decay rate results in a poor age estimate.
tooth
▪ But half the sugar in the drink came from the milk and was not thought to cause tooth decay.
▪ Kleinberg says that fluoride, which is in most drinking water and toothpaste, protects against 30 percent of tooth decay.
▪ In some parts of the country fluoride is added to the water to help prevent tooth decay.
▪ Some toothpaste manufacturers force feed sweets to monkeys to study tooth decay.
▪ The advice was not restricted to the prevention of tooth decay.
▪ Urine was recommended as a mouthwash because its acidity was thought to prevent tooth decay!
▪ The University of Florida researcher has come up with a brilliantly simple way to tackle tooth decay.
▪ Professor Keen denied yesterday that natural sugars were a significant cause of tooth decay.
■ VERB
fall
▪ The art of the Minoan seal cutters, like other aspects of the culture, was falling gradually into decay.
▪ From the time of Laurence little work was carried out on the Palace and it was again allowed to fall into decay.
▪ He goes away, rejecting the power he has assumed, hoping the creation will fall back into decay.
▪ Education, health and other social services fell yet faster into decay.
prevent
▪ In some parts of the country fluoride is added to the water to help prevent tooth decay.
▪ In respect of the dead the idea was to prevent decay of the body.
▪ Urine was recommended as a mouthwash because its acidity was thought to prevent tooth decay!
▪ A fluoride mouth wash will help to prevent dental decay.
produce
▪ For example, if groundwater solutions had dissolved some of the lead produced by uranium decay, the age would be underestimated.
▪ The neutrino is produced in the beta decay of nuclei, when a neutron converts into a proton, and an electron.
▪ Antimatter is also produced by radioactive decay.
▪ The resultant flow relieves the tension and produces the observed stress decay.
▪ This helium produced by radioactive decay, called radiogenic helium, consists of pure 4He.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Brushing your teeth regularly helps to fight against tooth decay.
▪ I have noticed decay in some of the floorboards.
▪ the decay of the central government in Russia
▪ Tiny organisms that live in the soil assist the process of decay.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ An optimistic theory of evolutionary progress was surreptitiously beginning to replace the pessimistic doctrine of universal decay.
▪ And it's the bodily imperfections and decay which lead us to desire a permanence of the human essence.
▪ But nomatterwhat cosmetics we use, what exercises we do, the decay of our bodies moves inexorably forward.
▪ Its rough surface traps the microflora responsible for halitosis and tooth decay.
▪ Now, however, the great Latin cities fell prey to widespread depopulation, economic decline, and physical decay.
▪ The decay constant F includes any process that destroys c1, c2 or their correlation.
▪ Without renewal, decay becomes irredeemable.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Decay

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.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
--Goldsmith.

Decay

Decay \De*cay"\, v. t.

  1. To cause to decay; to impair. [R.]

    Infirmity, that decays the wise.
    --Shak.

  2. To destroy. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

Decay

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.

    Perhaps my God, though he be far before, May turn, and take me by the hand, and more May strengthen my decays.
    --Herbert.

    His [Johnson's] failure was not to be ascribed to intellectual decay.
    --Macaulay.

    Which has caused the decay of the consonants to follow somewhat different laws.
    --James Byrne.

  2. Destruction; death. [Obs.]
    --Spenser.

  3. Cause of decay. [R.]

    He that plots to be the only figure among ciphers, is the decay of the whole age.
    --Bacon.

    Syn: Decline; consumption. See Decline.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
decay

late 15c., "to decrease," from Anglo-French decair, Old North French decair (Old French decheoir, 12c., Modern French déchoir) "to fall, set (of the sun), weaken, decline, decay," from Vulgar Latin *decadere "to fall off," from de- (see de-) + Latin cadere "to fall" (see case (n.1)). Meaning "decline, deteriorate" is c.1500; that of "to decompose, rot" is from 1570s. Related: Decayed; decaying.

decay

mid-15c., "deterioration, decline in value," from decay (v.). Meaning "gradual decrease in radioactivity" is from 1897.

Wiktionary
decay

n. 1 The process or result of being gradually decomposed. 2 A deterioration of condition. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality. 2 # (context intransitive electronics of storage media or the data on them English) To undergo http://en.wikipedi

  1. org/wiki/bit%20rot, that is, gradual degradation. 3 # (context intransitive computing of software English) To undergo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/software%20rot, that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment,so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete. 4 # (context intransitive physics of a satellite's orbit English) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body). 5 (context intransitive of organic material English) To rot, to go bad. 6 (context intransitive transitive physics chemistry of an unstable atom English) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons. 7 (context intransitive transitive physics of a quantum system English) To undergo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/optical%20decay, that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon. 8 (context aviation English) (rfdef: English) 9 (context transitive English) To cause to rot or deteriorate.

Related phrases:
WordNet
decay

  1. n. the process of gradually becoming inferior

  2. a gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current [syn: decline]

  3. the organic phenomenon of rotting [syn: 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: radioactive decay, disintegration]

  6. v. lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current; "the particles disintegrated during the nuclear fission process" [syn: disintegrate, decompose]

  7. fall into decay or ruin; "The unoccupied house started to decay" [syn: crumble, delapidate]

  8. undergo decay or decomposition; "The body started to decay and needed to be cremated"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Decay

Decay may refer to:

Decay (DC Comics)

Decay is the name of two fictional characters owned by DC Comics. The first was an enemy of the pre-Crisis Supergirl, while the second appeared as a villain in the Wonder Woman comic book series.

Decay (Sevendust song)

"Decay" is a song by the band Sevendust. It's from the band's ninth studio album Black Out the Sun.

Decay (2015 film)

Decay is a 2015 American psychological thriller film. Starring Rob Zabrecky, Jackie Hoffman, Lisa Howard, Elisha Yaffe, Hannah Barron and Reese Ehlinger. Written and Directed by Joseph Wartnerchaney it tells the story of a troubled middle-aged man who falls in love with a corpse.

Decay (professional wrestling)

Decay is a villainous professional wrestling tag team in the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion, consisting of Abyss, Crazzy Steve and Rosemary where they are the current TNA World Tag Team Champions. They made their debut on January 26, 2016. They won the TNA World Tag Team Championship after defeating former champions Beer Money, Inc.

Decay (film)

Decay is a 2012 horror film by Luke Thompson (of the University of Manchester), set at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The movie was created on a budget of $3,225 and was filmed over a period of two years by Thompson and his fellow physicists. The film was released online for free under a Creative Commons license. Decay was premiered on 29 November 2012 and centres on the idea of the Large Hadron Collider transforming scientists into zombies.

Thompson, a physics doctoral student, came up with the idea of the film while he was walking through the maintenance tunnels at CERN and began thinking that it would be a good location for a horror movie. In an interview with Wired, he stated that the film was initially started for fun, but that it was also an opportunity to "do some satirical commentary on various aspects of people’s perceptions of science".

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "decay".

Although the intermingling of various linguistic and cultural groups contributed greatly to the enrichment of Islamic civilization, it also was a source of great tension and contributed to the decay of Abbasid power.

Neurons in the network would become activated and reactivated by corresponding pitch values, and their activity would decay slowly.

Jefferson told Adams nothing of the new house he had built at his other plantation, Poplar Forest, or that Monticello, as visitors noted, was going to decay.

Surely, Monsieur Cacus, within, contains anerobic bacteria which act on the decaying matter animal and vegetable,, of which a decomposition product must be gas similar to coal gas.

Surely, Monsieur Cacus, within, contains anerobic bacteria which act on the decaying matter animal and vegetable, of which a decomposition product must be gas similar to coal gas.

Leafless herbs like beechdrops, lavender toothwort, and various bright-flowered small orchids, often without green leaves, were everywhere, growing from the roots of other living plants or their decaying remains.

Visions of a workhouse infirmary for her child had haunted the old woman in the basement breakfast-room of the decayed Belgravian house.

When the cocaine decays, its chief metabolic product is benzyl ecognine, which is what the lab found in its gas chromatograph analyzer this afternoon.

When the cocaine decays, its chief metabolic product is benzyl ecognine which is what the lab found in its gas chromatograph analyser this afternoon.

No vestige of decay marred Bloodstone, nor did any vine cling to its gleaming curve.

The punt was a very old affair, reduced almost to punk by the decay of the boards of which it was built, or the bow of the cutter would not have gone through it so readily.

An iron gate of elegant design, hanging loosely upon rusted hinges, proclaims both the past glories and the present decay of Brocas Old Hall, which lies at the end of the weed-encumbered avenue.

I had finished Buttonhook, and Joanna was stepping back admiring the sparkle of the glass, I fetched the paint and began the tedious job of covering the patchwork of old decayed black paint and pale new putty with a bright green skin.

His thoughts were interrupted when the rank meatiness of the odour of lunch was suddenly overlaid by something infinitely more unpleasant - a foul miasma of decay that intensified with each step that Astoroth took towards the stateroom where Nostrilamus, the once powerful Malefica of Caledon, was fighting his last battle with the foe none could vanquish.

On this now decaying porch no doubt lovers sat in the moonlight, and vowed by the Gut of Canso to be fond of each other forever.