Decline

[dɪ'klaɪn]

Definition

(noun.) change toward something smaller or lower.

(noun.) a condition inferior to an earlier condition; a gradual falling off from a better state.

(verb.) grow smaller; 'Interest in the project waned'.

(verb.) inflect for number, gender, case, etc., 'in many languages, speakers decline nouns, pronouns, and adjectives'.

(verb.) go down in value; 'the stock market corrected'; 'prices slumped'.

(verb.) go down; 'The roof declines here'.

Edited by Abraham--From WordNet

Definition

(v. i.) To bend, or lean downward; to take a downward direction; to bend over or hang down, as from weakness, weariness, despondency, etc.; to condescend.

(v. i.) To tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines.

(v. i.) To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw; as, a line that declines from straightness; conduct that declines from sound morals.

(v. i.) To turn away; to shun; to refuse; -- the opposite of accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle.

(v. t.) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.

(v. t.) To cause to decrease or diminish.

(v. t.) To put or turn aside; to turn off or away from; to refuse to undertake or comply with; reject; to shun; to avoid; as, to decline an offer; to decline a contest; he declined any participation with them.

(v. t.) To inflect, or rehearse in order the changes of grammatical form of; as, to decline a noun or an adjective.

(v. t.) To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.

(v. i.) A falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; also, the period when a thing is tending toward extinction or a less perfect state; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion.

(v. i.) That period of a disorder or paroxysm when the symptoms begin to abate in violence; as, the decline of a fever.

(v. i.) A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline.

Checked by Jennie

Synonyms and Synonymous

v. n. [1]. Lean downward.[2]. Decay, sink, droop, languish, pine, fail, become feeble.[3]. Deteriorate, degenerate, be impaired.[4]. Decrease, lessen, diminish, wane, fall away.

v. a. [1]. Refuse, reject.[2]. (Gram.) Inflect, vary.

n. [1]. Decline, deterioration, degeneracy, decay, diminution, falling off.[2]. Consumption, phthisis, marasmus, atrophy, gradual wasting, progressive emaciation.

Editor: Solomon

Definition

v.i. to bend or turn away from (a straight line); to deviate: to refuse: to bend down: to fail or decay: to stoop or condescend: to draw to an end.—v.t. to bend down: to turn away from: to refuse: to avoid: (gram.) to give the changes of a word in the oblique cases.—n. a falling off: deviation: decay: a gradual sinking of the bodily faculties consumption.—adjs. Declin′able having inflection for the oblique cases; Declī′nal bending downward; Dec′linant (her.) having the tail hanging down—also Dec′livant.—ns. Declinā′tion act of declining: a sloping or bending downward: deviation: (astron.) distance from the celestial equator; Dec′linātor an instrument determining declination.—adj. Declin′atory containing a declination or refusal—ns. Declin′ature act of declining or refusing: (law) a plea declining the jurisdiction of a judge; Declinom′eter an instrument for measuring the declination of the compass—i.e. the deviation of the magnetic needle from the true north.

Edited by Bertram