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Sour vs Decay - What's the difference?

sour | decay |

As nouns the difference between sour and decay

is that sour is the sensation of a sour taste while decay is the process or result of being gradually decomposed.

As verbs the difference between sour and decay

is that sour is (label) to make sour while decay is to deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.

As an adjective sour

is having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste.

sour

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete) sowr

Adjective

(er)
  • Having an acidic, sharp or tangy taste.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.
  • Made rancid by fermentation, etc.
    • (rfex)
  • Tasting or smelling rancid.
    • (rfex)
  • Peevish or bad-tempered.
  • * Shakespeare
    • He was a scholar / Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, / But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
  • (of soil) Excessively acidic and thus infertile.
  • (of petroleum) Containing excess sulfur.
    • (rfex)
  • Unfortunate or unfavorable.
  • * Shakespeare
    • sour adversity
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Phil Dawkes , title=Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.}}

    Noun

  • The sensation of a sour taste.
    • (rfex)
  • A drink made with whiskey, lemon or lime juice and sugar.
    • (rfex)
  • (label) Any cocktail containing lemon or lime juice.
  • A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
    • (Edmund Spenser)

    Derived terms

    * laundry sour

    Verb

  • (label) To make sour.
  • (label) To become sour.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • So the sun's heat, with different powers, / Ripens the grape, the liquor sours .
  • (label) To make disenchanted.
  • * Shakespeare
    • To sour your happiness I must report, / The queen is dead.
  • (label) To become disenchanted.
  • (label) To make (soil) cold and unproductive.
    • (Mortimer)
  • To macerate (lime) and render it fit for plaster or mortar.

    • Anagrams

    * ----

    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.

    External links

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