What do we say when glue does not stick anymore?

I want to know how can we says to a glue that does not stick anymore, can we say "Glue has faded"? is there any specific word in English for this phenomenon?

Solution 1:

I don't think there's any standard word for loss of stickiness [caused by the passage of time].

I acquired a large box of "self-seal" envelopes many years ago (the kind with two "tacky" surfaces like that on the back of a Post-it note, which stick when pressed together without needing to be wetted by licking). I'll usually say something like "The gum has dried out" when handing one to someone else, but it's not ideal because it implies you could "revive" the stickiness by wetting.

As you'll know if you've got any decades-old Post-it notes or rolls of Sellotape (US Scotch tape), that kind of loss of tackiness isn't fixed by a "just add water" approach. But in the same way that we speak of old oil-based paints drying out/up (and thus becoming thicker, or even solidifying), the same usage can apply to solvent-based liquid/paste glues.

If you want to use a more general term for important "functional" qualities lost over time, you could always say...

The glue has degraded (or perhaps deteriorated [in storage]).

Solution 2:

The glue-joint has failed.
The glue has failed.
The glue has lost all of its stickiness.
The glue isn't sticking any more.
The glue isn't holding any more.