What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Pine vs Decay - What's the difference?

pine | decay | Synonyms |

Pine is a synonym of decay.


As verbs the difference between pine and decay

is that pine is while decay is to deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.

As a noun decay is

the process or result of being gradually decomposed.

pine

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Noun

  • (countable, uncountable) Any coniferous tree of the genus Pinus .
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess), chapter=3 citation , passage=Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine , while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.}}
  • (countable) Any tree (usually coniferous) which resembles a member of this genus in some respect.
  • (uncountable) The wood of this tree.
  • (archaic) A pineapple.
  • Synonyms
    * (tree of genus Pinus) pine tree * (wood) pinewood
    Derived terms
    * bunya pine * hoop pine * Huon pine * jack pine * Norfolk Island pine * pineal * pineapple * * * pinecone, pine cone * * pine needle * pine nut * * * pine tar * pine tree * * stone pine * white pine * Wollemi pine * yellow pine

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) . Cognate to (m). Entered Germanic with Christianity; cognate to (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A painful longing.
  • Verb

    (pin)
  • To languish; to lose flesh or wear away through distress; to droop.
  • * Tickell
  • The roses wither and the lilies pine .
  • To long, to yearn so much that it causes suffering.
  • Laura was pining for Bill all the time he was gone.
  • * 1855 , John Sullivan Dwight (translator), “Oh Holy Night”, as printed in 1871, Adolphe-Charles Adam (music), “Cantique de Noël”, G. Schirmer (New York), originally by Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, 1847
  • Long lay the world in sin and error pining / Till He appear’d and the soul felt its worth
  • * {{quote-book, year=1994
  • , author=(Walter Dean Myers) , title=The Glory Field , chapter= , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=_ePdzF_m3V4C&q=%22pined%22 citation , isbn=978054505575 , page=29 , passage=The way the story went was that the man's foot healed up all right but that he just pined away.}}
  • To grieve or mourn for.
  • (Milton)
  • To inflict pain upon; to torment; to torture; to afflict.
  • * Bishop Hall
  • One is pined in prison, another tortured on the rack.

    References

    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.