declinate 
declinate (dek'li-nat), o. [< L. declinatm, pp. 
of decliiiare: see dtelinc.] 1. In ip., bending or 
bent downward ; declining : applied to stamens 
when they are thrown to one side of a flower, 
as in Amaryllis ; also applied to mosses. Also 
declined and declinous.2. In zool., declined; 
bending or sloping downward; declivous: op- 
posed to aoelinate. 
declination (dek-li-na'shqn), n. [< ME. decli- 
nation, declinacioun = OF"! declination, declina- 
ximi, declinaison, F. declinaison and declination 
= Sp. declination = Pg. declinayfio = It. decli- 
nazione = D. declinatie = G. declination = Dan. 
Sw. deklination, < L. declinatio(n~), a bending 
aside, deflection, inflection, declension, < de- 
clinare, bend, decline : see decline. Cf . declen- 
sion.] 1. A bending or sloping downward ; a 
sloping or bending from a higher to a lower 
level; subsidence: as, the declination of the 
shore. 
Like the sun in his evening declination. 
Johnson, Rambler. 
2. A falling to a lower or inferior condition; 
deterioration ; decline : as, declination in or of 
vigor, virtue, morals, etc. 
Your manhood and courage is alwayes in increase ; but 
our force groweth in declination. 
J. Brende, tr. of Quintus Curtius, ix. 
In our declinations now, every accident is accompanied 
with heavy clouds of melancholy ; and in our youth we 
never admitted any. Donne, Letters, Ixix. 
Many brave men, finding their fortune grow faint, and 
feeling its declination, have timely withdrawn themselves 
from great attempts. Sir T. Bromie, Christ. Mor., ii. 10. 
3. Deviation from a right line; oblique mo- 
tion. 
The declination of atoms in their descent. Bentley. 
4. Deviation from the right path or course of 
conduct: as, a declination from duty. 
The declinations from religion, besides the privative, 
which is atheism, and the branches thereof, are three : 
heresies, idolatry, and witchcraft. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 379. 
5f. Aversion; disinclination. 
The returne of sundry letters into Fraunce, signefying 
the queen's declination from marriage, and the people's 
unwillingness, to match that way. 
Stow, Queen Elizabeth, an. 1581. 
6. The act of declining, refusing, or shunning ; 
refusal : as, a declination of an office. [U. S.] 
7. In astron., the distance of a heavenly 
body from the celestial equator, measured on 
a great circle passing through the pole and also 
through the body. It is equal to the complement of 
the polar distance of the body, and is said to be north 
or south according as the body is north or south of the 
equator. Great circles passing through the poles, and 
cutting the equator at right angles, are called circles of 
declination. Small circles parallel to the celestial equator 
are termed parallels of declination. 
He was that tyme in Geminis, as I gesse, 
But litel fro his declinacioun 
Of Cancer. Chaucer, Merchant's Tale, 1. 979. 
8. The angle between the magnetic meridian 
and the geographical meridian of a place. 9. 
In dialing, the arc of the horizon contained 
between the vertical plane and the prime ver- 
tical circle, if reckoned from east or west, or 
between the meridian and the plane, if reck- 
oned from north or south. 10f. In gram., de- 
clension; the inflection of a noun through 
its various terminations. Apparent declination 
See apparent. Declination of atoms, or declination 
Of principles [ML. clinamen pnncipioruin], the slight un- 
caused swerving aside of atoms from their vertical paths, 
which was supposed by the ancient Epicureans for the 
sake of explaining free will and the variety of nature. 
Declination of the compass or needle, or magnetic 
declination, the variation of the magnetic needle from 
the true meridian of a place. The amount of this vari- 
ation is found by a declination needle or declinonuter 
(which see). In the northeastern part of the United States 
the needle points west of north (about 8 W. at New York 
city in 1885), while in the southern and western portions 
it points east of north. Further, the declination is now 
westerly in Europe and Africa and over the Atlantic ocean, 
while it is easterly for the larger part of North America 
South America, the Pacific ocean, and most of Asia. The 
declination is subject to large secular changes (20 to 40), 
embracing a cycle of several centuries ; it has been in- 
creasing in the eastern United States since the early part 
of the uinetef-" * " ... 
1488 
The votes of the declinators could not be heard for the 
,,,,isr. BI>. Hacket, Abp. Williams, ii. 65. 
declinatory (de-kli'na-to-ri), . and n. [= F. 
decliitatoire = S'p- Vg.'lt.'declinatorio, < ML. dc- 
dmatorius, < L. declinare, decline: see decline."] 
I. a. Of or pertaining to declination ; charac- 
terized by declining; intimating refusal De- 
clinatory plea, in M Eng. lau; a plea before trial or 
conviction, intended to show that the party was not lia- 
ble to the penalty of the law, or was specially exempted 
from the jurisdiction of the court, such as the plea of 
benefit of clergy. 
II. w. ; pi. declinatories (-riz). 1. Same as 
declinator, 1. 2f. An excuse or plea for de- 
clining. 
This matter came not to the judges to give any opinion ; 
and if it had, they had a declinatory, of course, viz., that 
matters of Parliament were too high for them. 
Jloger Xorth, Lord Guilford, II. 10. 
declinature (de-kli'na-tur), n. [< L. as if *de- 
eliiiatura, < dec'linare : ' see decline.] 1. The act 
of declining or refusing; declension. See ex- 
tract under declension, 3. 
The declinature of that office is no less graceful. 
The Scotsman (newspaper). 
Specifically 2. In Scots law, the privilege 
which a party has, in certain circumstances, to 
decline judicially the jurisdiction of the judge 
before whom he is cited. 
decline (de-kiln'), .; pret. and pp. declined, 
ppr. declining. [< ME. declinen, declynen (= D. 
declineren = G. decliniren = Dan. deklinere = 
Sw. deklinera), < OF. decliner, F. decliner = Sp. 
Pg. declinar = It. dichinare, dechinare, declinare, 
< L. declinare, bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, 
decline. < de, down, + *clinare, bend, incline, = 
E. leanl; see dine and lean 1 .] I. trans. 1. To 
cause to bend or slope; bend down; incline; 
cause to assume an inclined position; depress. 
In their familiar salutations they lay their hands on 
their bosoms, and a little decline, their bodies. 
Sandys, Travailes, p. 50. 
In melancholy deep, with head declin'd. Thornton. 
2f. To lower ; degrade ; debase. 
To decline the conscience in compliment to the senses. 
Smjlf. 
How would it sound in song, that a great monarch had 
declined his affections upon the daughter of a baker ? 
Lamb, Decay of Beggars. 
3f. To decrease; diminish; reduce. 
Yon have declined his means. 
Beau, and Fl. 
Declinational tide, a tide produced by the moon's 
changes of declination. 
declinator (dek'li-na-tor), n. [= F. dfolinateur 
= Pg. declinador = lt."declinatore, < NL. decli- 
nator, < L. declinare, decline: see decline and 
. declination.] 1. An instrument used in ascer- 
taining the declination, as in dialing, of a plane, 
and in astronomy, of the stars. Also declina- 
tory. 2f. One who declines to join or agree 
with another ; a dissentient. 
4t. To cause to deviate from a straight or right 
course ; turn aside ; deflect. 
I were no man, if I could look on beauty 
Distress'd, without some pity ; but no king, 
If any superficial glass of feature 
Could work me to decline the course of justice. 
Fletcher (ami Massingerf), Lovers' Progress, v. 3. 
I would not stain your honour for the empire, 
Nor any way decline you to discredit. 
Beau, and Fl., Valentinian, iii. 1. 
5. To turn aside from ; deviate from. [Archaic."] 
Your servants : who declining 
Their way, not able, for the throng, to follow, 
Slipt down the Gemonies, and brake their necks ! 
B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 1. 
The right-hand path they now decline, 
And trace against the stream the Tyne. 
Scott, Marmion, iv. 9. 
6. To avoid by moving out of the way ; shun ; 
avoid in general. [Archaic.] 
Him she loves most, she will seem to hate eagerliest, to 
decline your jealousy. B. Jonson, Epiccene, ii. 1. 
He [the Baptist] exhorted the people to works of mercy ; 
the publicans to do justice and to decline oppression. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), I. 83. 
7. To refuse ; refuse or withhold consent to do, 
accept, or enter upon: as, to decline a contest; 
to decline an offer. 
Melissa . . . gained the victory by declining the con- 
test. Johnson. 
As the squire said they could not decently decline his 
visit, lie was shown up stairs. 
Smollett, Humphrey Clinker. 
The gospel can never be effectually defended by a pol- 
icy which declines to acknowledge the high place assigned 
to liberty in the counsels of Providence. 
Gladstone, Might of Right, p. 271. 
8. In gram., to inflect, as a noun or an adjec- 
tive ; give the case-forms of a noun or an adjec- 
tive in their order: as, dominus, domini, domino, 
dominum, domine. =syn. 7. See refuse. 
II. intrans. 1. To bend or slant down; as- 
sume an inclined position; hang down; slope 
or trend downward; descend: as, the sun de- 
clines toward the west. 
The beholder would expect it to fall, being built exceed- 
ingly declining, by a rare addresse of the architect. 
A'(v(.i/n, Diary, Oct. 19, 1844. 
declinometer 
Green cowciimbers, that on their stalks decline. 
Stanley, Anacreon (1651), p. 88. 
The coast-line is diversified, however, by numerous wa- 
ter-worn headlands, which un reaching Cape Hatherton 
decline into rolling hills. Kane, Sec. Uriiin. Exp., I. 221. 
2f. To deviate from a right line ; specifically, to 
deviate from a line passing through the north 
and south points. 
The latitudes of planets lien comuuly rekned fro the 
Ecliptik, bicause that non of hem declinelh but few de- 
grees owt fro the brede of the zodiak. 
Chaucer, Astrolabe, ii. 1!. 
3. To deviate from a course or an object ; turn 
aside ; fall away ; wander. 
Sundry persons, who in fanour of the sayd Sc. (). * 
dining from her Maiestie, sought to interrupt the quiet 
of the Realme by many euill and vndutifull practizes. 
Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 207. 
Here we began to decline from the Sea Coast, upon 
which we had Travelled so many days before, and to draw 
off more Easterly, crossing obliquely over the Plain. 
ilattndrell, Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 57. 
4. To sink to a lower level ; sink down; hence, 
figuratively, to fall into an inferior or impaired 
condition; lose strength, vigor, character, or 
value; fall off ; deteriorate. 
My brother Wellbred, sir, I know not how, 
Of late is much declined in what he was. 
B. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, ii. 1. 
Rather would I instantly decline 
To the traditionary sympathies 
Of a most rustic ignorance. 
Wordsworth, Excursion, iv. 
5. To stoop, as to an unworthy object ; lower 
one's self ; condescend. 
From me ... to decline 
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor 
To those of mine. Shah., Hamlet, i. 5. 
Is it well to wish thee happy? having known me, to 
decline 
On a range of lower feelings, and a narrower heart than 
mine? Tennyson, Locksley Hall. 
6. To refuse; express refusal: as, he was in- 
vited, but declined. [Properly transitive, with 
the object implied or understood.] 7. To ap- 
proach or draw toward the close. 
The voice of God they heard, 
Now walking in the garden, by soft winds 
Brought to their ears while day declined. 
Milton, P. L., x. 99. 
8t. To incline ; tend. 
The purple lustre . . . declineth in the end to the colour 
of wine. Holland. 
9f. To incline morally; be favorably disposed. 
Your weeping sister is no wife of mine, 
Nor to her bed no homage do I owe ; 
Far more, far more, to you do I decline. 
Shak., C. of E., iii. 2. 
Declining dial. See dial. =Syn. 4. To droop, languish ; 
degenerate, deteriorate. 7. To wane. 
decline (de-kiln'), . [< decline, v.~\ 1. A bend- 
ing or sloping downward; a slope; declivity; 
incline. [Bare.] 2. A descending; progress 
downward or toward a close. 
At the decline of day, 
Winding above the mountain's snowy term, 
New banners shone. Shelley, Revolt of Islam, vi. 18. 
Like a lily which the sun 
Looks thro' in his sad decline. 
Tennyson, Adeline. 
3. A failing or deterioration ; a sinking into an 
impaired or inferior condition ; falling off ; loss 
of strength, character, or value ; decay. 
Their fathers lived in the decline of literature. Swift. 
We are in danger of being persuaded that the decline of 
our own tongue has not only commenced, but has already 
advanced too far to be averted or even arrested. 
G. P. Marsh, Lects. on Eng. Lang., Int., p. 3. 
4. In med. : (a) That stage of a disease when 
the characteristic symptoms begin to abate in 
violence. (6) A popular term for any chronic 
disease in which the strength and plumpness of 
the body gradually diminish, until the patient 
dies : as, he is in a decline, (c) The time of life 
when the physical and mental powers are fail- 
ing. (^Mfli'M. -Syn. 3. Degeneracy, falling off, drooping. 
declined (df-klind'), p. a. In bot., same as dc- 
i-liiinte, 1. 
decliner (de-kli'ner), n. 1. One who declines. 
He was a studious decliner of honours and titles. 
Kcehjn, Diary, p. 4. 
2. Same as declining din! (which see, under 
dial). 
declinograph (de-kll'no-graf), n. [Irreg. < L. 
declinare, decline, + Gr. ypdQtiv, write.] An 
arrangement for recording automatically the 
observation of declination with a filar microm- 
eter. 
declinometer (dek-li-nom'e-ter), n. [Irreg. < 
L. declinare, decline, -I- Gr. fierpov, a measure.] 
