Decline

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.

Compare decline with other words:

decline vs. upturn

decline vs. stop

decline vs. down

decline vs. discard

decline vs. deline

decline vs. decliner

decine vs. decline

decline vs. declined

cancel vs. decline

decline vs. negative

decline vs. dismiss

decline vs. deteriorate

decline vs. subside

decline vs. disappear

decline vs. lean

decline vs. increase

decline vs. descent

decline vs. delay

declinal vs. decline

decline vs. withsay

decay vs. decline

decline vs. worsen

decline vs. impede

decline vs. deterioration

decline vs. refute

decline vs. refut

decline vs. recession

decline vs. diminish

decline vs. degrade

decline vs. deny

decline vs. lessen

decline vs. lower

decline vs. descend

decline vs. degenerate

decline vs. descended

decline vs. rebuff

decline vs. twilight

declinable vs. decline

decline vs. retrogression

decline vs. sluggishness

decline vs. dwine

decline vs. smother

decline vs. propensity

decline vs. lowering

decline vs. reduce

decline vs. decrease

decline vs. renounce

decadence vs. decline

decline vs. lapse

decline vs. downfall

decline vs. disclaim

decline vs. slump

decadent vs. decline

decline vs. heteroclite

decline vs. plummet

decline vs. sluggish

decline vs. wane

decline vs. degeneration

decline vs. reject

decline vs. retrograde

correction vs. decline

conjugate vs. decline

decline vs. tank

decline vs. ebb

decline vs. recline

decline vs. declivity

climate vs. decline

declination vs. decline

declension vs. decline

decline vs. number

case vs. decline

decline vs. list

decline vs. forbear

decline vs. worse

decline vs. refuse

decline vs. weak

decline vs. drop

decline vs. downwards

decline vs. incline

decline vs. diminution

activity vs. decline

decline vs. reduction

decline vs. weakening

decline vs. sloping

decline vs. downward

decline vs. fall

decline vs. movement

decline vs. inflect

decline vs. dive

decline vs. repudiate

accept vs. decline

abate vs. decline