decays

Verb

decay (third-person singular simple present decays, present participle decaying, simple past and past participle decayed)

1. (intransitive) To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
   • The pair loved to take pictures in the decaying hospital on forty-third street.
   1. (intransitive) To undergo bit rot, that is, gradual degradation.
   2. (intransitive) To undergo software rot, that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment, so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.
   3. (intransitive) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).
      • Damaged on lift-off, Skylab was left in orbit until its orbit decayed.2009, Francis Lyall, Paul B. Larsen, Space Law: A Treatise, page 120
2. (intransitive) To rot, to go bad.
   • The cat's body decayed rapidly.
3. (intransitive, transitive) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons; to undergo radioactive decay.
   • Uranium decays to radium through a long series of steps with a cumulative half-life of 4.4 billion years.2005, Encyclopedia of Earth Science, edited by Timothy M. Kusky, →ISBN, page 349

See all 17 meanings of decay