decompose
[ dee-kuhm-pohz ]
/ ˌdi kəmˈpoʊz /
verb (used with object), de·com·posed, de·com·pos·ing.
to separate or resolve into constituent parts or elements; disintegrate: The bacteria decomposed the milk into its solid and liquid elements.
verb (used without object), de·com·posed, de·com·pos·ing.
to rot; putrefy: The egg began to decompose after a day in the sun.
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
- decolour,
- decommission,
- decommit,
- decompensate,
- decompensation,
- decomposed,
- decomposer,
- decomposition,
- decompound,
- decompress
Origin of decompose
SYNONYMS FOR decompose
Synonym study
2. See decay.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for decomposable
The old alchemists, who thought that gold was decomposable and therefore creatable, shrank from the idea of producing the diamond.
The Alkahest|Honore de BalzacThe molecule of Avogadro has always been a decomposable particle.
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry|M. M. Pattison MuirManifestly, decomposable states of consciousness cannot exist before the states of consciousness out of which they are composed.
Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects|Herbert SpencerOn the other hand, if this stratum is soft or decomposable it will show as a depression, or "sag" as it is called.
Every-day Science: Volume VI. The Conquest of Nature|Henry Smith Williams
decompose
/ (ˌdiːkəmˈpəʊz) /
verb
to break down (organic matter) or (of organic matter) to be broken down physically and chemically by bacterial or fungal action; rot
chem to break down or cause to break down into simpler chemical compounds
to break up or separate into constituent parts
(tr) maths to express in terms of a number of independent simpler components, as a set as a canonical union of disjoint subsets, or a vector into orthogonal components
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
decompose
1750s, "to separate into components," from de- "opposite of" + compose. Sense of "putrefy" is first recorded 1777. Related: Decomposed; decomposing.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper