decline

See also decliné, décline, and décliné

English

Etymology

From Middle English declinen, from Old French decliner, from Latin declinare (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”), from de (“down”) + clīnō (“I bend, I incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean).

Pronunciation

Noun

decline (plural declines)

  1. Downward movement, fall.
  2. A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.
  3. A weakening.
    • 2012 January 1, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 87: 
      In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.
  4. A reduction or diminution of activity.
    • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page ix
      It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities.

Antonyms

Translations

downward movement, fall
sloping downward
weakening
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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.
    The dollar has declined rapidly since 2001.
  2. (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.
    My health declined in winter.
  3. (transitive) To refuse, forbear.
    On reflection I think I will decline your generous offer.
  4. (transitive, grammar) To list the inflected forms of a noun, pronoun (and in some languages adjective) for case and number.

Derived terms

Translations

move downwards
weaken
refuse
inflect
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Related terms

External links

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Romanian

Verb

decline

  1. third-person singular subjunctive form of declina.
  2. third-person plural subjunctive form of declina.
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Spanish

Verb

decline (infinitive declinar)

  1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of declinar.
  2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of declinar.
  3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of declinar.
  4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of declinar.
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Last modified on 20 May 2013, at 16:42