Search the Dictionary

To cause to decay and perish; to corrput; to vitiate; to mar. Spiritual pride spils many graces. Jer. Taylor.

Having lost the life or graces of youth; worn out; decayed. "A stale virgin." Spectator.

continue in a state. The flames augment, and stay At their full height, then languish to decay. Dryden.

in; as, to strain a horse by overloading; to strain the wrist; to strain a muscle. Prudes decayed about may track, Strain their necks with looking back. Swift.

untry subject to extreme heat; men subject to temptation. All human things are subject to decay. Dryden.

Cheerful; genial; as, a sunny disposition. My decayed fair A sunny look of his would soon repair. Shak.

ndicates the existence of something else; as, corruption in elections is a symptom of the decay of public virtue.

numbers and strength till it became master of all Prussia, Livonia, and Pomerania. In its decay it was abolished by Napoleon; but it has been revived as an honorary order.

So they prepared timber . . . to build the house. 1 Kings v. 18. Many of the timbers were decayed. W. Coxe.

aped fungi, mostly of the genus Agaricus. The species are almost numberless. They grow on decaying organic matter.

A place where a messuage has once stood; the site of a burnt or decayed house.

Wood so decayed as to serve for tinder; spunk, or punk.

To talk a weak and silly manner, like one whose faculties are decayed; to prate; to prattle. Stanyhurst.

One who prates in a weak and silly manner, like one whose faculties are decayed.

A brown amorphous substance found in decaying vegetation. Cf. Humin. [Formerly written ulmine.]

rarily thrown out of employment, as those engaged for short periods, those whose trade is decaying, and those least competent.

Loss by use, decay, evaporation, leakage, or the like; waste.

injure, as an estate, voluntarily, or by suffering the buildings, fences, etc., to go to decay.

Locke. To wear away, to consume; to impair, diminish, or destroy, by gradual attrition or decay. -- To wear off, to diminish or remove by attrition or slow decay; as, to wear off the nap of cloth. -- To wear on or upon, to wear. [Obs.] "[I] weared upon my gay scarlet gites [gowns.]" Chaucer. -- To wear out. (a) To c…

To wither; to fade; also, to decay; to decline; to wane. [Obs.] When ruddy Phwelk in west. Spenser. The church, that before by insensible degrees welked and impaired, now with large steps went down hill decaying. Milton.