The process of gradually becoming inferior.

Roget 653: uncleanness etc. adj.; impurity; immundity^†, immundicity^†; impurity etc. 961 [of mind]. defilement, contamination etc. v.; defoedation^†; soilure^†, soiliness^†; abomination; leaven; taint, tainture^†; fetor etc. 401^†.    decay; putrescence, putrefaction; corruption; mold, must, mildew, dry rot, mucor, rubigo^†.    slovenry^†; slovenliness etc. adj.; squalor.    dowdy, drab, slut, malkin^†, slattern, sloven, slammerkin^†, slammock^†, slummock^†, scrub, draggle-tail, mudlark^†, dust-man, sweep; beast.    dirt, filth, soil, slop; dust, cobweb, flue; smoke, soot, smudge, smut, grit, grime, raff^†; sossle^†, sozzle^†.    sordes^†, dregs, grounds, lees; argol^†; sediment, settlement heeltap^†; dross, drossiness^†; mother^†, precipitate, scoriae, ashes, cinders.    recrement^†, slag; scum, froth.    hogwash; ditchwater^†, dishwater, bilgewater^†; rinsings, cheeseparings; sweepings etc. (useless refuse) 645; offscourings^†, outscourings^†; off scum; caput mortuum [Lat.], residuum, sprue, fecula [Lat.], clinker, draff^†; scurf, scurfiness^†; exuviae [Lat.], morphea; fur, furfur^†; dandruff, tartar.    riffraff; vermin, louse, flea, bug, chinch^†.    mud, mire, quagmire, alluvium, silt, sludge, slime, slush, slosh, sposh [U.S.].    spawn, offal, gurry [U.S.]; lientery^†; garbage, carrion; excreta etc. 299; slough, peccant humor, pus, matter, suppuration, lienteria^†; faeces, feces, excrement, ordure, dung, crap [Vulg.], shit [Vulg.]; sewage, sewerage; muck; coprolite; guano, manure, compost.    dunghill, colluvies^†, mixen^†, midden, bog, laystall^†, sink, privy, jakes; toilet, john, head; cess^†, cesspool; sump, sough, cloaca, latrines, drain, sewer, common sewer; Cloacina; dust hole.    sty, pigsty, lair, den, Augean stable^†, sink of corruption; slum, rookery.    ... show more

A gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current.

synonym: decline.

Roget 659: deterioration, debasement; wane, ebb; recession etc. 287; retrogradation etc. 283^†; decrease etc. 36.    degeneracy, degeneration, degenerateness; degradation; depravation, depravement; devolution; depravity etc. 945; demoralization, retrogression; masochism.    impairment, inquination^†, injury, damage, loss, detriment, delaceration^†, outrage, havoc, inroad, ravage, scath^†; perversion, prostitution, vitiation, discoloration, oxidation, pollution, defoedation^†, poisoning, venenation^†, leaven, contamination, canker, corruption, adulteration, alloy.    decline, declension, declination; decadence, decadency^†; falling off etc. v.; caducity^†, decrepitude.    decay, dilapidation, ravages of time, wear and tear; corrosion, erosion; moldiness, rottenness; moth and rust, dry rot, blight, marasmus^†, atrophy, collapse; disorganization; delabrement etc. (destruction). 162; aphid, Aphis, plant louse, puceron^†; vinefretter^†, vinegrub^†.    wreck, mere wreck, honeycomb, magni nominis umbra [Lat.]; jade, plug, rackabones [U.S.], skate [U.S.]; tackey^†, tacky [U.S.].    ... show more

Roget 124: oldness etc. adj.^†; age, antiquity; cobwebs of antiquity.    maturity; decline, decay; senility etc. 128.    seniority, eldership, primogeniture.    archaism etc. (the past) 122; thing of the past, relic of the past; megatherium^†; Sanskrit.    tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law.    ... show more

Roget 655: disease; illness, sickness etc. adj.; ailing &c.; all the ills that flesh is heir to" [Hamlet]; morbidity, morbosity^†; infirmity, ailment, indisposition; complaint, disorder, malady; distemper, distemperature^†.    visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit.    delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy^†; cachexia [Med.], atrophy, marasmus^†; indigestion, dyspepsia; decay etc. (deterioration) 659; decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration.    taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity^†, infestation; epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic; murrain, plague, pestilence, pox.    sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil; pimple, wen etc. (swelling) 250; carbuncle, gathering, imposthume^†, peccant humor, issue; rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore; cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor; caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus^†, sphacelation^†, leprosy; eruption, rash, breaking out.    fever, temperature, calenture^†; inflammation.    ague, angina pectoris [Lat.], appendicitis; Asiatic cholera^†, spasmodic cholera; biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague; blennorrhagia^†, blennorrhoea^†; blood poisoning, bloodstroke^†, bloody flux, brash; breakbone fever^†, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever; heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy [Med.]; hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis; bronchocele [Med.], canker rash, cardialgia [Med.], carditis [Med.], endocarditis [Med.]; cholera, asphyxia; chlorosis, chorea, cynanche^†, dartre [Fr.]; enanthem^†, enanthema^†; erysipelas; exanthem^†, exanthema; gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness; grip, grippe, influenza, flu; hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw; measles, mumps^†, polio; necrosis, pertussis, phthisis^†, pneumonia, psora^†, pyaemia^†, pyrosis [Med.], quinsy, rachitis^†, ringworm, rubeola, St.    Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma^†, syntexis^†, tetanus, tetter^†, tonsillitis, tonsilitis^†, tracheocele [Med.], trachoma, trismus [Med.], varicella [Med.], varicosis [Med.], variola [Med.], water qualm, whooping cough; yellow fever, yellow jack.    fatal disease etc. (hopeless) 859; dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough; general breaking up, break up of the system.    [Disease of mind] idiocy etc. 499; insanity etc. 503.    martyr to disease; cripple; the halt the lame and the blind;" valetudinary^†, valetudinarian; invalid, patient, case; sickroom, sick-chamber.    [Science of disease] pathology, etiology, nosology^†.    [Veterinary] anthrax, bighead; blackleg, blackquarter^†; cattle plague, glanders^†, mange, scrapie, milk sickness; heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms; quarter-evil, quarter-ill; rinderpest.    [disease-causing agents] virus, bacterium, bacteria.    [types of viruses] DNA virus; RNA virus.    [RNA viruses] rhinovirus; rhabdovirus; picornavirus.    [DNA viruses] herpesvirus; cytomegalovirus, CMV; human immunodefficiency virus, HIV.    ... show more

Dutch: decadentie

The organic phenomenon of rotting.

synonym: decomposition.

Polish: rozkład, rozpad

An inferior state resulting from the process of decaying.

The spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance along with the emission of ionizing radiation.

synonyms: disintegration, radioactive decay.

Lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current.

synonyms: decompose, disintegrate.

Roget 735: be ill off etc. adj.; go hard with; fall on evil, fall on evil days; go on ill; not prosper etc. 734.    go downhill, go to rack and ruin etc. (destruction) 162, go to the dogs; fall, fall from one's high estate; decay, sink, decline, go down in the world; have seen better days; bring down one's gray hairs with sorrow to the bring down one's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave; come to grief; be all over, be up with; bring a wasp's nest about one's ears, bring a hornet's nest about one's ears.    ... show more

Roget 195: become small, become smaller; lessen, decrease etc. 36; grow less, dwindle, shrink, contract, narrow, shrivel, collapse, wither, lose flesh, wizen, fall away, waste, wane, ebb; decay etc. (deteriorate) 659.    be smaller than, fall short of; not come up to etc. (be inferior) 34.    render smaller, lessen, diminish, contract, draw in, narrow, coarctate^†; boil down; constrict, constringe^†; condense, compress, squeeze, corrugate, crimp, crunch, crush, crumple up, warp, purse up, pack, squeeze, stow; pinch, tighten, strangle; cramp; dwarf, bedwarf^†; shorten etc. 201; circumscribe etc. 229; restrain etc. 751.    [reduce in size by abrasion or paring. ] (subtraction) 38 abrade, pare, reduce, attenuate, rub down, scrape, file, file down, grind, grind down, chip, shave, shear, wear down.    ... show more

Dutch: verloederen

Fall into decay or ruin:
— The unoccupied house started to decay.

synonyms: crumble, dilapidate.

Roget 36: decrease, diminish, lessen; abridge etc. (shorten) 201; shrink etc. (contract) 195; drop off, fall off, tail off; fall away, waste, wear; wane, ebb, decline; descend etc. 306; subside; melt away, die away; retire into the shade, hide its diminished head, fall to a low ebb, run low, languish, decay, crumble.    bate, abate, dequantitate^†; discount; depreciate; extenuate, lower, weaken, attenuate, fritter away; mitigate etc. (moderate) 174; dwarf, throw into the shade; reduce etc. 195; shorten etc. 201; subtract etc. 38.    ... show more

Dutch: verarmen, verloederen, verpauperen, vervallen

Undergo decay or decomposition.