v.
- become smaller, fewer, or less; decrease.
▸diminish in strength or quality; deteriorate.
- politely refuse:
the company declined to comment.
- (especially of the sun) move downwards.
- Grammar state the forms of (a noun, pronoun, or adjective) corresponding to cases, number, and gender.
n.
- a continuous loss of strength, numbers, or value.
- archaic a disease in which the bodily strength gradually fails, especially tuberculosis.
Derivative
- declinable adj.
- decliner n.
- declining adj.
Etymology
ME: from OFr. decliner, from L. declinare ‘bend down, turn aside’, from de- ‘down’ + clinare ‘to bend’.