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Decline   /dɪklˈaɪn/   Listen
noun
Decline  n.  
1.
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. "Their fathers lived in the decline of literature."
2.
(Med.) That period of a disorder or paroxysm when the symptoms begin to abate in violence; as, the decline of a fever.
3.
A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline.
Synonyms: Decline, Decay, Consumption. Decline marks the first stage in a downward progress; decay indicates the second stage, and denotes a tendency to ultimate destruction; consumption marks a steady decay from an internal exhaustion of strength. The health may experience a decline from various causes at any period of life; it is naturally subject to decay with the advance of old age; consumption may take place at almost any period of life, from disease which wears out the constitution. In popular language decline is often used as synonymous with consumption. By a gradual decline, states and communities lose their strength and vigor; by progressive decay, they are stripped of their honor, stability, and greatness; by a consumption of their resources and vital energy, they are led rapidly on to a completion of their existence.


verb
Decline  v. t.  
1.
To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall. "In melancholy deep, with head declined." "And now fair Phoebus gan decline in haste His weary wagon to the western vale."
2.
To cause to decrease or diminish. (Obs.) "You have declined his means." "He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it."
3.
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. "Could I Decline this dreadful hour?"
4.
(Gram.) To inflect, or rehearse in order the changes of grammatical form of; as, to decline a noun or an adjective. Note: Now restricted to such words as have case inflections; but formerly it was applied both to declension and conjugation. "After the first declining of a noun and a verb."
5.
To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun. (R.)


Decline  v. i.  (past & past part. declined; pres. part. declining)  
1.
To bend, or lean downward; to take a downward direction; to bend over or hang down, as from weakness, weariness, despondency, etc.; to condescend. "With declining head." "He... would decline even to the lowest of his family." "Disdaining to decline, Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries." "The ground at length became broken and declined rapidly."
2.
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. "That empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of coin." "And presume to know... Who thrives, and who declines."
3.
To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw; as, a line that declines from straightness; conduct that declines from sound morals. "Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies."
4.
To turn away; to shun; to refuse; the opposite of accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Decline" Quotes from Famous Books



... acknowledge that the policy of England with respect to Europe should be policy of reserve, but proud reserve; and in answer to those statesmen—those mistaken statesmen who have intimated the decay of the power of England and the decline of its resources, I express here my confident conviction that there never was a moment in our history when the power of England was so great and her resources so ...
— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various
... Lady Mary," cried Sylla; "but you cannot half act a thing. When the exigencies of the stage require one to be embraced, one must admit of that ceremony. Surely if a girl has scruples about going through such a mere form, she had much better decline ...
— Belles and Ringers • Hawley Smart
... career, can never be known. He exerted his influence so secretly that contemporary historians took little note of him; and while, in view of his final record, some see in him the spirit that prompted Yoritomo's merciless extirpation of his own relatives, others decline to credit him with such far-seeing cruelty, and hold that his ultimately attempted usurpations were inspired solely by fortuitous opportunity which owed nothing to his contrivance. Wherever the truth may ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... spite of the lectures he would at times read him, was in a way proud of him as he grew older; he saw in him, moreover, one who would probably develop into a good man of business, and in whose hands the prospects of his house would not be likely to decline. John knew how to humour his father, and was at a comparatively early age admitted to as much of his confidence as it was in his nature to ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler
... animal productions; for example, in the southern parts of the continent the Xanthorrea affords an inexhaustible supply of fragrant grubs, which an epicure would delight in, when once he has so far conquered his prejudices as to taste them; whilst in proceeding to the northward, these trees decline in health and growth, until about the parallel of Gantheaume Bay they totally disappear, and even a native finds himself cut off from his ordinary supplies of insects; the same circumstances taking place with regard to the roots and other kinds of ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre


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