Decline

de-klin', v. [-clined (-klind'), -clining.] To bend over or hang down, as from weakne , wearine , despondency, etc.; to tend towards a close or extinction; to fail, sink, decay to turn aside, deviate, stray to refuse. — To bend downward, depre ; to turn away from, refuse to comply with, reject courteously, shun, avoid. (Gram.) To inflect in order in the changes of grammatical form.— n. A falling off; tendency to a worse state; deterioration. (Med.) That period of a disorder when the symptoms abate in violence: a gradual wasting awav of the physical faculties. Decay; consumption. [OF. decliner, L. decUnare, de and clinare, to bend, incline, lean; L. clivis, a hill, slope, E. lean.] — Declin'er, n. — Declin'able, a. That may be declined; admitting of inflection. Declension, -klen's hun, n. Declination; descent; slope; a falling off from excellence; deterioration; decay act of courteously refusing declinature. (Gram.) Inflection of a word, according to grammatical forms; the form of the inflection of a word declined by cases. — Dec'linate, a. (Bot.) Bending downward, in a curve: curved downward; declined. — Declina'tion, n. Act or state of bending downward, or of falling off from excellence, or of deviating or turning aside; obliquity; withdrawal. (Astron.) Angular distance of an object from th*» celestial equator. (Dialing.) The arc of the horizon, between the vertical plane and prime vertical circle, or between the meridian and the plane. linger or ink, then, boNboN, chair, get. 152 DECOCT 136 {Gram.) Act of inflecting a word through various terminations. — Declination of the compa , or needle. Variation of the needle from the true meridian of a place. — Dec'linator, -lT-na-ter, n. An instrument for taking the declination of a reclining plane. — Declin'atory, -klin'a-to-rt, a. Containing a refusal. — Declinature, -klin'a-chur, n. Act of putting away or refusing. — Declinometer, n. An instrument for measuring the declination of the magnetic needle. [Gr. metron, measure.] — Declivity, -kliv'T-tl, n. Deviation from a horizontal line; descent of surface; inclination downward; a descend- — ing surface; slope. [F. de'cliviti, L. declivitas.] Declivous, -kli'vus, -clivitous, -kliv'T-tus, a. Gradually descending; sloping.