He . . . would decline even to the lowest of his
family. --Lady
Hutchinson.
Disdaining to decline, Slowly he falls, amidst
triumphant cries. --Byron.
The ground at length became broken and declined
rapidly. --Sir W.
Scott.
2. 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.
That empire must decline Whose chief support and
sinews are of coin. --Waller.
And presume to know . . . Who thrives, and who
declines. --Shak.
3. To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw;
as, a line that declines from straightness; conduct that
declines from sound morals.
Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. --Ps.
cxix. 157.
4. To turn away; to shun; to refuse; -- the opposite of
accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle.
In melancholy deep, with head declined. --Thomson.
And now fair Phoebus gan decline in haste His weary
wagon to the western vale. --Spenser.
2. To cause to decrease or diminish. [Obs.] ``You have
declined his means.'' --Beau. & Fl.
He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline
it. --Burton.
3. 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.
Could I Decline this dreadful hour? --Massinger.
4. (Gram.) To inflect, or rehearse in order the changes of
grammatical form of; as, to decline a noun or an
adjective.
Note: Now restricted to such words as have case inflections;
but formerly it was applied both to declension and
conjugation.
After the first declining of a noun and a verb.
--Ascham.
5. To run through from first to last; to repeat like a
schoolboy declining a noun. [R.] --Shak.
Their fathers lived in the decline of literature.
--Swift.
2. (Med.) That period of a disorder or paroxysm when the
symptoms begin to abate in violence; as, the decline of a
fever.
3. A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical
faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary
consumption; as, to die of a decline. --Dunglison.
Syn: {Decline}, {Decay}, {Consumption}.
Usage: Decline marks the first stage in a downward progress;
decay indicates the second stage, and denotes a
tendency to ultimate destruction; consumption marks a
steady decay from an internal exhaustion of strength.
The health may experience a decline from various
causes at any period of life; it is naturally subject
to decay with the advance of old age; consumption may
take place at almost any period of life, from disease
which wears out the constitution. In popular language
decline is often used as synonymous with consumption.
By a gradual decline, states and communities lose
their strength and vigor; by progressive decay, they
are stripped of their honor, stability, and greatness;
by a consumption of their resources and vital energy,
they are led rapidly on to a completion of their
existence.