Definition
Meaning of 'decline'
Meaning of 'decline' (Webster Dictionary)
1. Decline 
[ v. i.]
- To bend, or lean downward; to take a downward
direction; to bend over or hang down, as from weakness, weariness,
despondency, etc.; to condescend. [ v. i.]- To tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines.
- To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw; as, a line that declines from straightness; conduct that declines from sound morals.
- To turn away; to shun; to refuse; -- the opposite of accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle.
- A falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; also, the period when a thing is tending toward extinction or a less perfect state; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion.
- That period of a disorder or paroxysm when the symptoms begin to abate in violence; as, the decline of a fever.
- A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline.
2. Decline [ v. t.]
- To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause
to bend, or fall. [ v. t.]- To cause to decrease or diminish.
- To put or turn aside; to turn off or away from; to refuse to undertake or comply with; reject; to shun; to avoid; as, to decline an offer; to decline a contest; he declined any participation with them.
- To inflect, or rehearse in order the changes of grammatical form of; as, to decline a noun or an adjective.
- To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.
Meaning of 'decline' (Princeton's WordNet)
1. decline [ v]
[ v]Meaning (1):
- grow worse
- grow worse
Example in sentence:
- Conditions in the slum worsened
Meaning (2):
- show unwillingness towards
- show unwillingness towards
Example in sentence:
- he declined to join the group on a hike
Meaning (3):
- refuse to accept
- refuse to accept
Example in sentence:
- He refused my offer of hospitality
Meaning (4):
- inflect for number, gender, case, etc.
- inflect for number, gender, case, etc.
Example in sentence:
- in many languages, speakers decline nouns, pronouns, and adjectives
Meaning (5):
- grow smaller
- grow smaller
Example in sentence:
- Interest in the project waned
Meaning (6):
- go down
- go down
Example in sentence:
- The roof declines here
Meaning (7):
- go down in value
- go down in value
Example in sentence:
- prices slumped;
- the stock market corrected
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