How to Use decay in a Sentence

decay

1 of 2 verb
  • She believes that the moral fiber of our society is decaying.
  • The city's neighborhoods are decaying.
  • Then the deer vanished, the docks decayed, the towers fell.
    Campbell McGrath, The New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2020
  • Species evolve, planets decay, and the ways of the past fall as the future evolves.
    Eric Fuller, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2021
  • The battery packs last about a decade and decay much faster if the car spends a lot of time parked.
    Brendan McAleer, Car and Driver, 8 Oct. 2022
  • All the goodies in the above-ground parts of plants should be allowed to fall to the ground and decay over the winter.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 16 Sep. 2021
  • And, as in the other study, the protein took longer to decay in human cells.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 19 Sep. 2020
  • However, the severe topping of the tree has led to decay through the heartwood of the trunk.
    Neil Sperry, San Antonio Express-News, 2 Apr. 2021
  • Of empires passed away; / The blood has turned their stones to rust, / Their glory to decay.
    cleveland, 4 July 2022
  • By that time, some of the nutrients and taste will most likely have decayed.
    Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2020
  • The more contact the atmosphere makes with the rocket stage, the faster its orbit will decay.
    Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 5 May 2021
  • Closed to students and staff in 1984, the once-bustling learning hub has for decades done nothing but decay and rot.
    Mandy McLaren, The Courier-Journal, 12 Aug. 2021
  • The benches are made of Ipe, a hardwood resistant to rot and decay.
    Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, 6 May 2022
  • These will decay this winter and your bushes will be all set.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Sep. 2021
  • Their faces begin to decay and their eyes are swallowed up.
    Shannon Carlin, refinery29.com, 13 Oct. 2020
  • Dead roots would tend to be more brown and dried-out looking and starting to decay after 13 months of cover.
    Tim Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 31 Oct. 2021
  • The artifacts of the past are as prone to damage and decay as our memories, which is all the more reason to cherish them in the present.
    Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2022
  • Pumpkins decay quickly if the stems are broken off rather then cut.
    Jim Gilbert, Star Tribune, 22 Oct. 2020
  • There is grace and beauty and virtue and comfort in this world, de Wilde seems to be saying, but also hypocrisy and the smelliness of flesh born to decay.
    Ted Scheinman, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Mar. 2020
  • The former 12-bedroom home of the Duke and Duchess of York (a wedding gift from the Queen) was sold for 15 million pounds after their divorce and left to decay.
    Danielle Tullo, House Beautiful, 12 Sep. 2022
  • But, weirdly, legacy is tricky, and learning the bad doesn’t always decay the good.
    USA Today, 21 Jan. 2021
  • Normally nutrients taken up by plants from the soil are put back when the plants dies and decay.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 18 Aug. 2022
  • Levine doesn’t hide aging and decay, yet her work is a vision of perfection.
    Washington Post, 11 June 2021
  • Near it, the remnants of wooden buildings are splintering and decaying in the sun.
    AZCentral.com, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Buildings decay and need to be rebuilt every 50 years or so.
    John H. Cochrane, National Review, 3 Sep. 2021
  • Well, to clean up, yes, but because the stuff really is supposed to decay and return nutrients to the soil, not get hauled off to the dump.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 7 Oct. 2021
  • Dead raccoons were decaying on the rain shelf of the chimney, a concern that Schamens said is less common today.
    Eddie Morales, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5 Mar. 2020
  • Plastics don't decay in the environment and may stay over 100 years...
    Nimi Princewill, CNN, 15 June 2021
  • And when the rotting body has been clothed in what can’t decay, and the dying body has been clothed in what can’t die, then this statement in scripture will happen: Death has been swallowed up by a victory.
    Kelsey Hurwitz, Woman's Day, 1 June 2022
  • The heart stops beating, neurons stop firing, muscles tense and begin to decay, cells decompose.
    Oliver Whang, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2022
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decay

2 of 2 noun
  • She writes about the moral decay of our society.
  • The city's neighborhoods are in slow decay.
  • This is a slow process for the tree and decay takes decades.
    oregonlive, 6 Aug. 2023
  • While the decay was years in the making, the end came quickly.
    Marion Halftermeyer, Fortune, 19 Mar. 2023
  • Rust is inevitable, but there is a way to keep the decay at bay.
    Tony Carrick, Popular Mechanics, 23 Mar. 2023
  • There could also be decay or a wound at the break point.
    Adithi Ramakrishnan, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2023
  • For me, the larger concern is the decay of my healthy habits.
    Jonathan Wolfe, New York Times, 23 Nov. 2022
  • Leaving food in your mouth overnight is (a) gross and (b) a recipe for tooth decay.
    Drew Schwartz, SELF, 10 Feb. 2023
  • Wear and tear is inevitable, and decay is part of being alive.
    Raven Smith, Vogue, 22 Mar. 2023
  • The time was this week, with doubt piling up like fall leaves, giving off a sign of death and decay.
    Nate Atkins, The Indianapolis Star, 14 Nov. 2022
  • The unique texture of the Stix cleans and polishes your dog's teeth to prevent plaque buildup and tooth decay.
    Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 4 July 2023
  • Whole fruits and vegetables that show no signs of decay.
    Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 25 Aug. 2023
  • The surroundings are matched by the decay of their owners, who have no idea how to run a business.
    William Earl, Variety, 9 June 2023
  • This process of decay has not been linear or uniform across the island.
    IEEE Spectrum, 27 Jan. 2023
  • The best way to shorten that decay time is to fill the room with as much soft, porous mass as possible.
    Parker Hall, WIRED, 9 Mar. 2023
  • Still, when the room was searched again on June 29, a team of cadaver dogs signaled the smell of human decay.
    Brenna Ehrlich, Rolling Stone, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Make the cuts flush with the remaining branches, also with the trunk to minimize the chances of decay.
    Neil Sperry, San Antonio Express-News, 5 May 2023
  • And because the show delights in gore, the king’s decay is a ghoulish and graphic affair.
    Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2022
  • And retraining the models and other methods to stop the decay didn’t help.
    Katie Palmer, STAT, 10 Oct. 2023
  • Plus, it's made of cypress, a type of wood that resists decay and insects.
    Jamie Weissman, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Nov. 2022
  • Due to the decay, the face could not be recognized, nor could age be determined.
    David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 17 Sep. 2023
  • Think about the scavenger bird and images of disease and decay soon follow.
    Gertrude Kitongo, CNN, 22 Feb. 2024
  • In the mythology, the elves saw their world decay as magic slowly faded across the ages.
    Christopher Ceccolini, SPIN, 13 Oct. 2022
  • Fluoride has been added to city water to prevent tooth decay since the 1950s.
    Emily Goodykoontz, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Feb. 2023
  • The novel opens at the story’s end, as the authorities find three bodies in varying states of decay in the woods.
    Gabino Iglesias, New York Times, 25 Jan. 2024
  • His room was searched again during the weekend of June 29, and a team of cadaver dogs signaled the smell of human decay.
    Brenna Ehrlich, Rolling Stone, 18 Oct. 2022
  • Previously, people had thought a berry that was dark was a sign of its decay.
    Devorah Lev-Tov, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Nov. 2023
  • Here is a nice summary of wood decay and tree response.
    oregonlive, 6 Aug. 2023
  • The imagery of decay and renewal felt like a commentary on the fate of Athens itself, which has gone through so many cycles over the last 2,500 years.
    Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Mar. 2024
  • However due to decay and fungi damage, the tree's health is declining.
    Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY, 19 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'decay.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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