Retire vs Decay - What's the difference?
retire | decay | Related terms |
(rare) The act of retiring, or the state of being retired; also, a place to which one retires.
(dated) A call sounded on a bugle, announcing to skirmishers that they are to retire, or fall back.
To withdraw; to take away; -- sometimes used reflexively.
* Sir Philip Sidney
* Sir J. Davies
To withdraw from circulation, or from the market; to take up and pay; as, to retire bonds; to retire a note.
To cause to retire; specifically, to designate as no longer qualified for active service; to place on the retired list; as, to retire a military or naval officer.
(transitive, cricket, of a batsman) to voluntarily stop batting before being dismissed so that the next batsman can bat
(transitive, baseball, of a fielder), to make a defensive play which results in a runner or the batter being put out
To go back or return; to draw back or away; to keep aloof; to withdraw or retreat, as from observation; to go into privacy; as, to retire to his home; to retire from the world, or from notice.
To retreat from action or danger; to withdraw for safety or pleasure; as, to retire from battle.
To withdraw from a public station, from working, or from business
To recede; to fall or bend back; as, the shore of the sea retires in bays and gulfs.
To go to bed; as, he usually retires early.
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
Retire is a related term of decay.
As verbs the difference between retire and decay
is that retire 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.retire
English
Noun
(en noun)- At the retire , the cavalry fell back.
Verb
- He retired himself, his wife, and children into a forest.
- As when the sun is present all the year, / And never doth retire his golden ray.
- The central bank retired those notes five years ago.
- The board retired the old major.
- Jones retired in favour of Smith.
- Jones retired Smith 6-3.
- I will retire to the study.''
- The regiment retired from the fray after the Major was killed.
- Having made a large fortune, he retired .
- He wants to retire at 55.
- Past the point, the shore retires into a sequence of coves.
- I will retire for the night.
Derived terms
* (l) * (l) * (l) * (cricket) (l)Anagrams
* ----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.