Part 78

2. A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc.

Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension.

Shak.

3. Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination.

4. (Gram.) (a) Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the grammatical cases. (b) The form of the inflection of a word declined by cases; as, the first or the second declension of nouns, adjectives, etc. (c) Rehearsing a word as declined.

The nominative was held to be the primary and original form, and was likened to a perpendicular line; the variations, or oblique cases, were regarded as fallings (hence called casus, cases, or fallings) from the nominative or perpendicular; and an enumerating of the various forms, being a sort of progressive descent from the noun's upright form, was called a declension. Harris.

Declension of the needle, declination of the needle.

De*clen"sion*al (?), a. Belonging to declension.

Declensional and syntactical forms.

M. Arnold.

De*clin"a*ble (?), a. [Cf. F. déclinable. See Decline.] Capable of being declined; admitting of declension or inflection; as, declinable parts of speech.

De*clin"al (?), a. Declining; sloping.

Dec"li*nate (?), a. [L. declinatus, p. p. of declinare. See Decline.] Bent downward or aside; (Bot.) bending downward in a curve; declined.

Dec`li*na"tion (?), n. [L. declinatio a bending aside, an avoiding: cf. F. déclination a decadence. See Declension.] 1. The act or state of bending downward; inclination; as, declination of the head.

2. The act or state of falling off or declining from excellence or perfection; deterioration; decay; decline. "The declination of monarchy." Bacon.

Summer . . . is not looked on as a time Of declination or decay.

Waller.

3. The act of deviating or turning aside; oblique motion; obliquity; withdrawal.

The declination of atoms in their descent.

Bentley.

Every declination and violation of the rules.

South.

4. The act or state of declining or refusing; withdrawal; refusal; averseness.

The queen's declination from marriage.

Stow.

5. (Astron.) The angular distance of any object from the celestial equator, either northward or southward.

6. (Dialing) The arc of the horizon, contained between the vertical plane and the prime vertical circle, if reckoned from the east or west, or between the meridian and the plane, reckoned from the north or south.

7. (Gram.) The act of inflecting a word; declension. See Decline, v. t., 4.