decline

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See also: decliné, décline, and décliné

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from de (“down”) +‎ clīnō (“I bend, I incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways in Middle English:

  • The grammatical sense came from Old English declīnian, which was borrowed directly from the Latin etymon.
  • All senses except the grammatical sense were derived from those of Old French decliner. Old French itself borrowed the verb from Latin.

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: dĭ-klīnʹ, IPA(key): /dɪˈklaɪn/
  • Hyphenation: de‧cline
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪn

Noun

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decline (countable and uncountable, plural declines)

  1. Downward movement, fall.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
  2. A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
  4. A deterioration of condition; a weakening or worsening.
    He has experienced a sudden decline in his health.
    Educational standards are on the decline.
    The country's global reputation is in decline.
    • 2012 January, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist‎[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 4 April 2012, 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.
  5. A reduction or diminution of activity, prevalence or quantity.
    Population decline is a major concern.
    Town-centre retailers have seen a decline in footfall.
    • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, 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.
    • 2022 March 23, Paul Clifton, “Londoners pay the price”, in RAIL, number 953, page 48:
      "It knows it has to plan for managed decline, but it can't even plan for managed decline if it doesn't know how much decline to manage."
  6. The act of declining or refusing something.
    • 2004, David A. Montague, Fraud Prevention Techniques for Credit Card Fraud:
      The issuing bank only checks the consumer's credit card number for authorization. […] Soft declines are those declines in which the bank requires further verification.

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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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 bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
  4. (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.
  5. To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.
    a line that declines from straightness
    conduct that declines from sound morals
  6. (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.
    • 1626, Philip Massinger, The Roman Actor:
      Could I decline this dreadful hour?
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      “ […] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.
    On reflection I think I will decline your generous offer.
  8. (transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like.
    Synonym: declense (rare)
    Hyponym: misdecline
  10. (transitive, grammar) To recite all the different declined forms of (a word): to recite its declension.
    Synonym: declense (rare)
    Hyponym: misdecline
    • 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, 1st edition:
      after the first declining of a noun and a verb
  11. (by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.
    • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
      Decline all this, and see what now thou art. For happy wife, a most distressed widow;
      For joyful mother, one that wails the name;
      For one being sued to, one that humbly sues;
      For queen , a very caitiff crown'd with care […]
  12. (American football, Canadian football) To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.
    The team chose to decline the fifteen-yard penalty because their receiver had caught the ball for a thirty-yard gain.

Usage notes

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  • Decline, refuse, forbear, refrain: Decline is gentler than refuse and carries a connotation that the non-acceptance is an acceptable or anticipated option (decline an invitation) or the result of a considered decision (the judge declined to grant the motion). Refuse has a stronger connotation of rejection, firmness, resistance, or non-compliance. For example, if someone declines to give their name, that suggests they were given a choice and elected not to give their name. If someone refuses to give their name, the connotation is more toward a suggestion that they normally should have given their name and are being intransigent. Forbear or refrain, conversely, suggest choosing not to do something that one might indulge in or be tempted to do (refrain from smoking), with forbear having an added connotation of showing some fortitude in withstanding the temptation (forbear to show anger). Refrain can also be used to refer to a general policy or preference rather than a choice on a single occasion.
  • The noun form for most meanings of decline is decline, e.g. "the decline of the empire". The noun for decline in the grammatical senses is declension. The noun declination has to do with astronomical coordinates, and is rare or archaic as the noun form of the verb decline.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of decline
infinitive (to) decline
present tense past tense
1st-person singular decline declined
2nd-person singular decline, declinest† declined, declinedst†
3rd-person singular declines, declineth† declined
plural decline
subjunctive decline declined
imperative decline —
participles declining declined

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Portuguese

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Verb

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decline

  1. inflection of declinar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

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Verb

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decline

  1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of declina

Spanish

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Verb

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decline

  1. inflection of declinar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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