declination (deklinashon)

[ shore. IMG:content-2175.png:[blocks in formation] 2. A falling to a lower or inferior condition; deterioration; decline: as, declination in or of vigor, virtue, morals, etc. Your manhood and courage is alwayes in increase; but our force groweth in declination . J. Brende, tr. of Quintus Curtius, ix. In our declinations now, every accident is accompanied with heavy clouds of melancholy; and in our youth we never admitted any. Donne , Letters, lxix. Many brave men, finding their fortune grow faint, and feeling its declination , have timely withdrawn themselves from great attempts. Sir T. Browne , Christ. Mor., ii. 10. 3. Deviation from a right line; oblique motion. The declination of atoms in their descent, Bentley . 4. Deviation from the right path or course of conduct: as, a declination from duty. The declinations from religion, besides the privative, which is atheism, and the branches thereof, are three: heresies, idolatry, and witchcraft. Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 379. 51. Aversion; disinclination. The returne of sundry letters into Fraunce, signefying the queen's declination from marriage, and the people's unwillingne , to match that way. Stow , Queen Elizabeth, an. 1581. 1488 The votes of the declinators could not be heard for the noise. Bp . Hacket , Abp. Williams, ii. 65. declinatory (de-klīna-to-ri), a . and n. [= F. déclinatoire = Sp. Pg. It. dec lin a to rio , de clinatorius , dec lin are , decline: see decline .] I. a. Of or pertaining to declination; characterized by declining; intimating refusal.-De clinatory plea, in old Eng, law, a plea before trial or conviction, intended to show that the party was not liafrom the jurisdiction of the court, such as the plea of ble to the penalty of the law, or was specially exempted benefit of clergy. II. n.; pl. dec lin a tories (-riz). 1. Same as declinator , 1.-21. An excuse or plea for declining. This matter came not to the judges to give any opinion; and if it had, they had a declinatory , of course, viz., that matters of Parliament were too high for them. Roger North , Lord Guilford, II. 10. declinature (de-klī nā-tur), n. [ de clinatura , dec lin are : see decline .] 1. The act of declining or refusing; declension. See extract under declension , 3. The declinature of that office is no le graceful. The Scotsman (newspaper). Specifically-2. In Scots law, the privilege which a party has, in certain circumstances, to decline judicially the jurisdiction of the judge before whom he is cited. decline (de-klin'), v.; pret. and pp. declined, ppr. declining. [ In melancholy deep, with head declin'd . 21. To lower; degrade; debase. To decline the conscience in compliment to the senses. Boyle. How would it sound in song, that a great monarch had declined his affections upon the daughter of a baker? Lamb, Decay of Beggars. 3t. To decrease; diminish; reduce. declinometer Green cow cumbers, that on their stalks decline. Stanley , A nacre on (1651), p. 86. The coast-line is diversified, however, by numerous water-worn headlands, which on reaching Cape Hatherton decline into rolling hills. Kane , Sec. Grinn. Exp., I. 221. 2t. To deviate from a right line; specifically, to deviate from a line pa ing through the north and south points. The latitudes of planets ben comunly rekned fro the Ecliptik, bicause that non of hem declineth but few degrees owt fro the brede of the zodiak. Chaucer , Astrolabe, ii. 19. 3. To deviate from a course or an object; turn aside; fall away; wander. Sundry persons, who in fauour of the sayd Sc. Q. de clining from her Maiestie, sought to interrupt the quiet of the Realme by many euill and vndutifull practizes. Putten ham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 207. Here we began to decline from the Sea Coast, upon which we had Travelled so many days before, and to draw off more Easterly, cro ing obliquely over the Plain. Maundrell , Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 57. 4. To sink to a lower level; sink down; hence, figuratively, to fall into an inferior or impaired condition; lose strength, vigor, character, or value; fall off; deteriorate. My brother Well bred, sir, I know not how, Of late is much declined in what he was. B. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, ii. 1. Rather would I instantly decline To the traditionary sympathies Of a most rustic ignorance. Words worth, Excursion, iv. IMG:content-2176.png:[blocks in formation] decline Is it well to wish thee happy?- having known me, to On a range of lower feelings, and a narrower heart than mine? Tennyson, Locksley Hall. 6. To refuse; expre refusal: as, he was in- vited, but declined . [Properly transitive, with the object implied or understood.] -7. To ap- proach or draw toward the close. The voice of God they heard, Now walking in the garden, by soft winds Brought to their ears while day declined . 8t. To incline; tend. The purple lustre of wine. Milton, P. L., x. 99. declineth in the end to the colour Holland . through the body. It is equal to the complement of the polar distance of the body, and is said to be north or south according as the body is north or south of the equator. Great circles pa ing through the poles, and cutting the equator at right angles, are called circles of declination. Small circles parallel to the celestial equator are termed parallels of declination. He was that tyme in Geminis, as I ge e, But litel fro his declinacioun Of Cancer. Chaucer, Merchant's Tale, 1. 979. 8. The angle between the magnetic meridian and the geographical meridian of a place.-9. In dialing, the arc of the horizon contained between the vertical plane and the prime vertical circle, if reckoned from east or west, or between the meridian and the plane, if reckoned from north or south.-10†. In gram., declension; the inflection of a noun through its various terminations. - Apparent declination. See apparent. - Declination of atoms, or declination of principles [ML. clinamen principiorum ), the slight uncaused swerving aside of atoms from their vertical paths, which was supposed by the ancient Epicureans for the sake of explaining free will and the variety of nature.Declination of the compa or needle, or magnetic declination, the variation of the magnetic needle from the true meridian of a place. The amount of this var i ation is found by a declination needle or declinometer (which see). In the northeastern part of the United States the needle points west of north (about 8° W. at New York city in 1885), while in the southern and western portions it points east of north. Further, the declination is now westerly in Europe and Africa and over the Atlantic ocean, while it is easterly for the larger part of North America, South America, the Pacific ocean, and most of Asia. The declination is subject to large secular changes (20° to 40°), embracing a cycle of several centuries; it has been in creasing in the eastern United States since the early part of the nineteenth century. See agonic and isogonic. changes of declination.