de·cline
| \ di-ˈklīn
, dē-\
intransitive verb
1
archaic
: to turn from a straight course : stray
b
: to bend down : droop
… eyes … declining toward the ground …— Henry Fielding
c
: to stoop (see stoop entry 1 sense 3b) to what is unworthy
… the direful shameful state Adam declined into …— Edward Taylor
3a
of a celestial body
: to sink toward setting
the declining sun
b
: to draw toward a close : wane
the day declined
4
: to tend toward an inferior state or weaker condition
his health declined Employee morale declined after the layoffs.
5
: to withhold consent
We invited him but he declined.
6
: to become less in amount
The price of the stock declined.
transitive verb
1
grammar
: to give in prescribed order the grammatical forms of (a noun, pronoun, or adjective)
decline the Latin adjective "brevis"
2
obsolete
a
: avert
… evasions are sought to decline the pressure of resistless arguments …— Samuel Johnson
b
: avoid
… sinners … despairing to decline their fate …— Thomas Ken
3
: to cause to bend or bow downward
… the clover … declines its blooms.— W. C. Bryant
4a
: to refuse to undertake, undergo, engage in, or comply with
decline battle
b
: to refuse especially courteously
decline an invitation declined to give her name to the reporter
de·cline
| \ di-ˈklīn
, dē- also ˈdē-ˌklīn
\
1
: the process of declining:
a period of economic decline a decline in the local bird population
a
: a gradual physical or mental sinking and wasting away
experiencing a mental decline
b
: a change to a lower state or level
the decline of the aristocracy
2
: the period during which something is deteriorating or approaching its end
an empire in decline
3
: a downward slope
built on a slight decline
4
: a wasting disease
especially
: pulmonary tuberculosis
