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Breakdown vs Decay - What's the difference?

breakdown | decay |

As nouns the difference between breakdown and decay

is that breakdown is a failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed while decay is the process or result of being gradually decomposed.

As a verb decay is

to deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.

breakdown

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed
  • We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.
  • A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability
  • After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.
  • Listing, division or categorization in great detail
  • ''Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
  • (chemistry) Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements.
  • A musical technique, by where the music is stripped down, becoming simpler, and can vary in heaviness depending on the genre.
  • * 1992 , En Vogue, My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It) (song)
  • And now it's time for a breakdown !
  • (sports) A loss of organization (of the parts of a system).
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 18 , author=Ben Dirs , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties.}}
  • (US, dated) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the blacks of the southern United States.
  • (US, dated) Any crude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time.
  • * (rfdate) New Eng. Tales
  • Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a breakdown to wind up with.
  • (US) Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo.
  • Foggy Mountain 'Breakdown'
  • * 1893 , (Mark Twain) "The Californian's Tale", in (1906)
  • Towards nine the three miners said that as they had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good old fashioned breakdown . A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet - these were the instruments.
  • *
  • *
  • * {{quote-book, ???, title=Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, page=102,
  • books.google.com/books?isbn=1592403778, author=Stephen Davis, year=2008, passage=Izzy lays down some big chords while Slash plays the song's banjo breakdown of a theme.}}
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * (musical technique) degradation

    Derived terms

    * breakdown lorry / breakdown truck * breakdown point * nervous breakdown

    See also

    * break it down

    decay

    English

    (wikipedia decay)

    Noun

  • The process or result of being gradually decomposed.
  • * 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
  • I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable. It struck me as singularly odd, that among the universal decay , this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousand years.
  • A deterioration of condition.
  • Derived terms

    * bacterial decay * decayability * decayable * decayer * orbital decay * particle decay * radioactive decay

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • 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.
  • # (intransitive, electronics, of storage media or the data on them) To undergo , that is, gradual degradation.
  • # (intransitive, computing, of software) To undergo , that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment,so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.
  • # (intransitive, physics, of a satellite's orbit) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).
  • 2009 , Francis Lyall, Paul B. Larsen, Space Law: A Treatise , page 120:
  • Damaged on lift-off, Skylab was left in orbit until its orbit decayed .
  • (of organic material) To rot, to go bad.
  • The cat's body decayed rapidly.
  • (intransitive, transitive, physics, chemistry, of an unstable atom) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons.
  • * 2005 , Encyclopedia of Earth Science (edited by Timothy M. Kusky; ISBN 0-8160-4973-4), page 349:
  • Uranium decays to radium through a long series of steps with a cumulative half-life of 4.4 billion years.
  • (intransitive, transitive, physics, of a quantum system) To undergo , that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon.
  • (aviation)
  • To cause to rot or deteriorate.
  • The extreme humidity decayed the wooden sculptures in the museum's collection in a matter of years.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Infirmity, that decays the wise.