Carrion vs Decay - What's the difference?
carrion | decay |
Dead flesh; carcasses.
* Spenser
* 1922, , Vintage Classics, paperback edition, page 119
(obsolete, derogatory) A contemptible or worthless person.
* Shakespeare
The process or result of being gradually decomposed.
* 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
A deterioration of condition.
To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
# (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).
(of organic material) To rot, to go bad.
(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:
(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.
* Shakespeare
As nouns the difference between carrion and decay
is that carrion is dead flesh; carcasses 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.carrion
English
Noun
(en-noun)- Vultures feed on carrion .
- They did eat the dead carrions .
- Perhaps the Purple Emperor is feasting, as Morris says, upon a mass of putrid carrion at the base of an oak tree.
- Old feeble carrions .
decay
English
(wikipedia decay)Noun
- 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.
Derived terms
* bacterial decay * decayability * decayable * decayer * orbital decay * particle decay * radioactive decayVerb
(en verb)- The pair loved to take pictures in the decaying hospital on forty-third street.
- 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 .
- The cat's body decayed rapidly.
- Uranium decays to radium through a long series of steps with a cumulative half-life of 4.4 billion years.
- The extreme humidity decayed the wooden sculptures in the museum's collection in a matter of years.
- Infirmity, that decays the wise.