decline

English Online Dictionary. What means decline‎? What does decline mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from de (“down”) +‎ clīnō (“I bend, I incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways in Middle English:

• The grammatical sense came from Old English declīnian, which was borrowed directly from the Latin etymon.
• All senses except the grammatical sense were derived from those of Old French decliner. Old French itself borrowed the verb from Latin.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dĭ-klīnʹ, IPA^(key): /dɪˈklaɪn/
• Hyphenation: de‧cline
• 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?)
4. A deterioration of condition; a weakening or worsening.
5. A reduction or diminution of activity, prevalence or quantity.
6. The act of declining or refusing something.

Antonyms

• incline

Derived terms

Translations

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.

2. (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.

3. (transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
4. (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.
5. To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.

   a line that declines from straightness

   conduct that declines from sound morals
6. (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.

8. (transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like.

   Synonym: declense (rare)

   Hyponym: misdecline

10. (transitive, grammar) To recite all the different declined forms of (a word): to recite its declension.

    Synonym: declense (rare)

    Hyponym: misdecline
11. (by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.
12. (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.

Usage notes

• Decline, refuse, forbear, refrain: Decline is gentler than refuse and carries a connotation that the non-acceptance is an acceptable or anticipated option (decline an invitation) or the result of a considered decision (the judge declined to grant the motion). Refuse has a stronger connotation of rejection, firmness, resistance, or non-compliance. For example, if someone declines to give their name, that suggests they were given a choice and elected not to give their name. If someone refuses to give their name, the connotation is more toward a suggestion that they normally should have given their name and are being intransigent. Forbear or refrain, conversely, suggest choosing not to do something that one might indulge in or be tempted to do (refrain from smoking), with forbear having an added connotation of showing some fortitude in withstanding the temptation (forbear to show anger). Refrain can also be used to refer to a general policy or preference rather than a choice on a single occasion.
• The noun form for most meanings of decline is decline, e.g. "the decline of the empire". The noun for decline in the grammatical senses is declension. The noun declination has to do with astronomical coordinates, and is rare or archaic as the noun form of the verb decline.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• “decline”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “decline”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “decline”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Delnice

Portuguese

Verb

decline

1. inflection of declinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Verb

decline

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

Spanish

Verb

decline

1. inflection of declinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative