2. The act or state of falling off or declining from excellence or perfection; deterioration; decay; decline. “The declination of monarchy.” Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Summer . . . is not looked on as a time
Of declination or decay. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The act of deviating or turning aside; oblique motion; obliquity; withdrawal. [ 1913 Webster ]

The declination of atoms in their descent. Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

Every declination and violation of the rules. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The act or state of declining or refusing; withdrawal; refusal; averseness. [ 1913 Webster ]

The queen's declination from marriage. Stow. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Astron.) The angular distance of any object from the celestial equator, either northward or southward. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Gram.) The act of inflecting a word; declension. See Decline, v. t., 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

Angle of declination, the angle made by a descending line, or plane, with a horizontal plane. --
Circle of declination, a circle parallel to the celestial equator. --
Declination compass (Physics), a compass arranged for finding the declination of the magnetic needle. --
Declination of the compass or
Declination of the needle, the horizontal angle which the magnetic needle makes with the true north-and-south line. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A dissentient. [ R. ] Bp. Hacket. [ 1913 Webster ]

Declinatory plea (O. Eng. Law), the plea of sanctuary or of benefit of clergy, before trial or conviction; -- now abolished. [ 1913 Webster ]

He . . . would decline even to the lowest of his family. Lady Hutchinson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Disdaining to decline,
Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

The ground at length became broken and declined rapidly. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

That empire must decline
Whose chief support and sinews are of coin. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

And presume to know . . .
Who thrives, and who declines. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. Ps. cxix. 157. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To turn away; to shun; to refuse; -- the opposite of accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle. [ 1913 Webster ]

In melancholy deep, with head declined. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

And now fair Phoebus gan decline in haste
His weary wagon to the western vale. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cause to decrease or diminish. [ Obs. ] “You have declined his means.” Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Could I
Decline this dreadful hour? Massinger. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Gram.) To inflect, or rehearse in order the changes of grammatical form of; as, to decline a noun or an adjective. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Now restricted to such words as have case inflections; but formerly it was applied both to declension and conjugation. [ 1913 Webster ]

After the first declining of a noun and a verb. Ascham. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their fathers lived in the decline of literature. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Med.) That period of a disorder or paroxysm when the symptoms begin to abate in violence; as, the decline of a fever. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]