decrepitude

From Middle French décrépitude, from Old French, from Latin dēcrepitūdō (“decrepitude”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈkɹɛpɪtʃuːd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dəˈkɹɛpɪˌtuːd/

decrepitude (countable and uncountable, plural decrepitudes)

1. the state of being decrepit or worn out from age or long use
   • 1781, Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets:

     There prevailed in his time an opinion, that the world was in its decay, and that we have had the misfortune to be produced in the decrepitude of nature.

   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:

     This was the probable destination of his sister Kate. His uncle had deceived him, and might he not consign her to some miserable place where her youth and beauty would prove a far greater curse than ugliness and decrepitude?

   • 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:

     We were encircled by a ghostly decrepitude, roads that led to nowhere, canals holding pools of brilliant, stinking water, a few nat-haunted banyan trees, grotesque with old muscled trunks and bearded roots.

   • 1983, James C. H. Shen, “A Round of Calls”, in Robert Myers, editor, The U.S. & Free China: How the U.S. Sold Out Its Ally‎, Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books Ltd., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 107:

     He recalled that when he accompanied Nixon to Peking in February, 1972, he had been struck by Mao's decrepitude and Chou's failing health.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:decrepitude.

• cobwebbiness, decrepitness, hoariness; see also Thesaurus:oldness

• Hyphenation: de‧cre‧pi‧tu‧de

decrepitude f (usually uncountable, plural decrepitudes)

1. decrepitude (the state of being decrepit)