You can picture decide as cutting through a tangle of possibilities and settling on one. Several roads were open; you bring it to a close and pick a single one — the matter is now cut clean and fixed. That act of 'cutting it down to one and settling it' is what runs through every use.
From the word’s history
Latin decidere is literally 'to cut off' (de- 'off' + caedere 'to cut') — to settle a question by cutting away the other options.
拉丁文 decidere 字面就是「切掉」（de- 切除 + caedere 切）——把其他選項都切掉，問題就此了結，正對應「定下一個」的核心畫面。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'decide'
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
decideverb/dɪˈsaɪd/
- 1
To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
- The election will be decided on foreign policies.
- It was decided to meet here at midnight.
- 2
To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.
- You must decide between good and evil.
- I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.
- 3
To cause someone to come to a decision.
- Your admonition decided me against my intended course of action.
- It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.
- 4
computingcomputing-theoryengineeringOf a Turing machine: to return a correct answer (for some yes-or-no problem) on every possible input.
- No Turing Machine can decide the halting problem.
- First, the hierarchy theorems tell us that a Turing machine can decide more languages in EXPSPACE than it can in PSPACE.
- 5
obsoleteTo cut off; to separate.
- Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。