declinature

[Fr. déclinatoire.] The act of declining or refusing. dě-cline', v . i. & t . [Fr. décliner ; Sp. & Port. declinar, from Lat. declino =to bend or lean away from: de away from, and clino =to bend, to lean.] A. Intransitive : IMG:content-1955.png:[blocks in formation] "The purple luster declineth in the end to the 8. To avoid, to refuse, to shirk or shun. B. Transitive: I. Ordinary Language: †1. Literally: (1) To bend or hang down; to depre , to lower. "Carnations once IMG:content-1956.png:[blocks in formation] when feasts his heart might have declined, With which they welcomed him." Chapman: Homer's Iliad, v. 807. *(3) To diminish, to reduce, to decrease. "You have declined his means." -Beaum . & Fletch. (4) To shun, to refuse, to avoid, to turn away from. they far more readily forgive a commander who loses a battle than a commander who declines one." -Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. xiv. II. Gram.: To inflect a noun; to repeat or write the various terminations of a noun according to its various cases. "You decline mus a, and construe Latin, by the help of a tutor, or with some English translation." - Watts . For the difference between to decline and to refuse, see REFUSE. decoirment declining-dial, 8. Dialing: One which cuts either the plane of the prime vertical circle or plane of the horizontal obliquely. (Knight.)