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Dissolution; degeneration; decay. [R.] Sad catalysis and declension of piety. Evelyn.

as coexisting together. Locke. So much purity and integrity . . . coexisting with so much decay and so many infirmities. Warburton.

Capable of being preserved from decay or injury.

Having the quality of preserving from loss, decay, or injury.

The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.; decay; destruction. Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his consumption. Burke.

Affected with, or inclined to, consumption. The lean, consumptive wench, with coughs decayed. Dryden.

Capable of being made corrupt; subject to decay. "Our corruptible bodies." Hooker. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold. 1 Pet. i. 18.

Not susceptible of corruption or decay; incorruptible. Dryden.

Characterized by weakness or feeblness; decrepit; broken; falling to decay; shaky; unsafe. Piles of mean andcrazy houses. Macualay. One of great riches, but a crazy constitution. Addison. They . . . got a crazy boat to carry them to the island. Jeffrey.

To saturate or impregnate with creosote, as timber, for the prevention of decay.

a lame person; hence, one who is partially disabled. I am a cripple in my limbs; but what decays are in my mind, the reader must determine. Dryden.

To fall into small pieces; to break or part into small fragments; hence, to fall to decay or ruin; to become disintegrated; to perish. If the stone is brittle, it will crumble and pass into the form of gravel. Arbuthnot. The league deprived of its principal supports must soon crumble to pieces. Prescott.…

To decay and perish through excessive moisture.

Decayed; tasteless; dead; as, a deaf nut; deaf corn. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. If the season be unkindly and intemperate, they [peppers] will catch a blast; and then the seeds will be deaf, void, light, and naught. Holland. Deaf and dumb, without the sense of hearing or the faculty of speech. See Deaf-mute.…

A falling away; decay; deterioration; declension. "The old castle, where the family lived in their decadence.' Sir W. Scott.

Decaying; deteriorating.

A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc. Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension. Shak.

he act or state of falling off or declining from excellence or perfection; deterioration; decay; decline. "The declination of monarchy." Bacon. Summer . . . is not looked on as a time Of declination or decay. Waller.

To tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines. That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. An…

rom previously existing forms of chemical combination; to bring to dissolution; to rot or decay.