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Droop vs Decay - What's the difference?

droop | decay | Related terms |

Droop is a related term of decay.


As verbs the difference between droop and decay

is that droop is (lb) to sink or hang downward; to sag while decay is to deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.

As nouns the difference between droop and decay

is that droop is something which is limp or sagging; while decay is the process or result of being gradually decomposed.

droop

English

(wikipedia droop)

Verb

(en verb)
  • (lb) To sink or hang downward; to sag.
  • *
  • Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth.
  • * (Sylvester Stallone) (1946-)
  • I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop , the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.
  • (lb) To slowly become limp; to bend gradually.
  • (lb) To lose all enthusiasm or happiness.
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • I saw him ten days before he died, and observed he began very much to droop and languish.
  • * (Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • I'll animate the soldier's drooping courage.
  • (lb) To allow to droop or sink.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • Like to a withered vine / That droops his sapless branches to the ground.
  • To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline.
  • * (1809-1892)
  • when day drooped

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • something which is limp or sagging;
  • a condition or posture of drooping
  • He walked with a discouraged droop .

    Derived terms

    * brewer's droop ----

    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.