decline

Etymology

From Middle English declinen, borrowed from Old French decliner, from Latin declinare (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”), from de (“down”) + clīnō (“I bend, I incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈklaɪn/
• Hyphenation: de‧cline

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪn

Noun

decline (countable and uncountable, plural declines)

1. Downward movement, fall.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. A weakening.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
   • 2012 January 1, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, page 87:

     In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.

4. A reduction or diminution of activity.
   • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page ix

     It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities.

Verb

decline (third-person singular simple present declines, present participle declining, simple past and past participle declined)

1. (intransitive) To move downwards, to fall, to drop.

   The dollar has declined rapidly since 2001.

2. (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.

   My health declined in winter.

3. (transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
   • Thomson

     in melancholy deep, with head declined

   • Spenser

     And now fair Phoebus gan decline in haste / His weary wagon to the western vale.

4. (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.
   • Beaumont and Fletcher

     You have declined his means.

   • Burton

     He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it.

5. To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.

   a line that declines from straightness

   conduct that declines from sound morals

   • Bible, Psalms cxix. 157

     Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

6. (transitive) To refuse, forbear.
   • Massinger

     Could I decline this dreadful hour?

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     “[…] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.

   On reflection I think I will decline your generous offer.

7. (transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number and sometimes gender.
   • Ascham

     after the first declining of a noun and a verb

8. (by extension) To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

9. (American football, Canadian football) To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.

   • The team chose to decline the fifteen-yard penalty because their receiver had caught the ball for a thirty-yard gain.

Further reading

• decline in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• decline in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• decline at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Delnice

Verb

decline

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of declinar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of declinar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of declinar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of declinar

Verb

decline

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of declina.
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of declina.

Verb

decline

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of declinar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of declinar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of declinar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of declinar.