decline

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) Downward movement, fall.
2. (countable, uncountable) A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.
3. (countable, uncountable) A deterioration of condition; a weakening or worsening.
4. (countable, uncountable) A reduction or diminution of activity, prevalence or quantity.
5. (countable, uncountable) The act of declining or refusing something.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
2. (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.
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.
6. (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.
7. (transitive, usually) To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like.
8. (transitive) To recite all the different declined forms of (a word): to recite its declension.
9. (broadly) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.
10. (Canadian) 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.

Synonyms

decrease

refuse

decay

fall

reject

diminish

wane

deteriorate

go down

turn down

ebb

drop

deny

diminution

reduce

downfall

decadence

deterioration

descent

dismiss

slope

reduction

weaken

lessen

spurn

slump

fade

slant

abate

worsen

conjugate

abatement

inflect

disavow

waning

weakening

descend

wither

subside

sink

repulse

ruin

lower

waste away

incline

disallow

recession

fail

recede

degeneration

Translations

ablehnen

refuser

décliner

declinare

rifiutare

weigeren

rechazar

déclin

Verfall

Abnahme

recusar

refusar

declinar

rejeter

afname

Pronounced as (IPA)

/dɪˈklaɪn/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: declinen

Inherited from Old English: declīnian

In summary

From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from de (“down”) + clīnō (“to bend, to 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.

Sentences

In them she shares her discouragement at her physical decline and progressive blindness .