Decided Decide I Dɪˈsaɪd Legal Deciding Difficult Taking

• it's up to you to decide.
• i can't tell you what to do—you'll have to decide for yourself.
• it was difficult to decide between the two candidates.
• they decided against taking legal action.

decide

1. to think carefully about the different possibilities that are available and choose one of them
• It's up to you to decide.
• I can't tell you what to do—you'll have to decide for yourself.
• It was difficult to decide between the two candidates.
• They decided against taking legal action.
• I can't decide what to wear.
• She couldn’t decide whether he was telling the truth or not.
• She decided (that) she wanted to live in France.
• We've decided not to go away after all.
• Why did you decide to look for a new job?
• We might be hiring more people but nothing has been decided yet.
• It was decided (that) the school should purchase new software.
2. to make an official or legal judgement
• The case will be decided by a jury.
• The Appeal Court decided in their favour.
• It is always possible that the judge may decide against you.
3. to affect the result of something
• A mixture of skill and good luck decided the outcome of the game.
• A number of factors decide whether a movie will be successful or not.
4. to be the reason why somebody does something
• For most customers, price is the deciding factor.
• They offered me free accommodation for a year, and that decided me.

Extra Examples

• I can’t decide what to do.
• It was difficult to decide between the various options.
• She should be allowed to decide for herself.
• The committee will have the task of deciding whether more cash should be made available.
• The exact time of the meeting is still to be decided.
• They decided against taking legal action
• They decided in favour of reducing the fees.
• They had unanimously decided to go with the captain’s plan.
• We finally decided to stay where we were.
• We’ve reluctantly decided to sell the house.
• You will have to decide soon.
• He challenged her right as governor to decide on the matter.
• I can’t tell you what to do - you’ll have to decide for yourself.
• In the end, price was the deciding factor.
• It’s time to decide whether you want to continue.
• It’s up to you to decide.
• That decided it for me: I wasn’t carrying my bike back up those stairs.
• We might be hiring new people but nothing has been decided yet.
• We’ve decided not to go away after all.
• You choose - I can’t decide.

Verb Forms

• present simple I / you / we / they decide
• he / she / it decides
• past simple decided
• past participle decided
• -ing form deciding

Word Origin

• late Middle English (in the sense ‘bring to a settlement’): from French décider, from Latin decidere ‘determine’, from de- ‘off’ + caedere ‘cut’.