Part 80

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.

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.

De*cline" (?), n. [F. déclin. See Decline, v. i.] 1. 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.

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. 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.

De*clined" (?), a. Declinate.

De*clin"er (?), n. He who declines or rejects.

A studious decliner of honors.

Evelyn.

Dec`li*nom"e*ter (?), n. [Decline + -meter.] (Physics) An instrument for measuring the declination of the magnetic needle.

De*clin"ous (?), a. Declinate.

{ De*cliv"i*tous (?), De*cli"vous (?), } a. Descending gradually; moderately steep; sloping; downhill.

De*cliv"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Declivities (#). [L. declivitas, fr. declivis sloping, downhill; de + clivus a slope, a hill; akin to clinare to incline: cf. F. déclivité. See Decline.] 1. Deviation from a horizontal line; gradual descent of surface; inclination downward; slope; -- opposed to acclivity, or ascent; the same slope, considered as descending, being a declivity, which, considered as ascending, is an acclivity.

2. A descending surface; a sloping place.

Commodious declivities and channels for the passage of the waters.

Derham.

De*coct" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Decocted; p. pr. & vb. n. Decocting.] [L. decoctus, p. p. of decoquere to boil down; de- + coquere to cook, boil. See Cook to decoct.] 1. To prepare by boiling; to digest in hot or boiling water; to extract the strength or flavor of by boiling; to make an infusion of.