Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DE-CLAR'ING, ppr.

Making known by words or by other means; manifesting; publishing; affirming; reciting the cause of complaint.

DE-CLEN'SION, n. [L. declinatio, from declino. See Decline.]

1. Literally, a leaning back or down: hence, a falling or declining toward a worse state; a tendency toward a less degree of excellence or perfection. The declension of a state is manifested by corruption of morals. We speak of the declension of virtue, of manners, of taste, of the sciences, of the fine arts, and sometimes of life or years; but in the latter application, decline is more generally used.
2. Declination; a declining; descent; slope; as, the declension of the shore toward the sea. Burnet.
3. In grammar, inflection of nouns, adjectives and pronouns; the declining, deviation or leaning of the termination of a word from the termination of the nominative case; change of termination to form the oblique cases. Thus from rex in the nominative case, are formed regis in the genitive, regi in the dative, regem in the accusative, and rege in the ablative.

DE-CLIN'A-BLE, a.

That may be declined; changing its termination in the oblique cases; as, a declinable noun.

DEC'LIN-ATE, a. [L. declinatus.]

In botany, bending or bent downward, in a curve; declining. Martyn.

DEC-LIN-A'TION, n.

1. A leaning; the act of bending down; as, a motion of the head.
2. A declining, or falling into a worse state; change from a better to a worse condition; decay; deterioration; gradual failure or diminution of strength, soundness, vigor or excellence.
3. A deviation from a right line, in a literal sense; oblique motion; as, the declination of a descending body. Bentley.
4. Deviation from rectitude in behavior or morals; obliquity of conduct; as, a declination from the path of integrity.
5. In astronomy, a variation from a fixed point or line. The distance of any celestial object from the equinoctial line, or equator, either northward or southward. Encyc.
6. Declination of the compass or needle, is the variation of the needle from the true meridian of a place. Encyc.
7. In dialing, the declination of a wall or plane, is an arch of the horizon, contained between the plane and the prime vertical circle, if reckoned from the east or west, or between the meridian and the plane, if you reckon from the north or south. Bailey.
8. In grammar, declension; or the inflection of a noun through its various terminations. Johnson.

DEC-LIN-A'TOR, or DE-CLIN'A-TO-RY, n.

An instrument for taking the declination, or inclination of a plane; an instrument in dialing. Encyc. Chambers. Declinatory plea, in law, a plea before trial or conviction, intended to show that the party was not liable to the penalty of the law, or was specially exempted from the jurisdiction of the court. The plea of benefit of clergy is a declinatory plea. Blackstone.

DE-CLIN'A-TURE, n.

A declining.

DE-CLINE', n.

Literally, a leaning from: hence, a falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion; the decline of revenues; the decline of agriculture, commerce or manufactures; the decline of learning.

DE-CLINE', v.i. [L. declino; de and clino, to lean. See Lean.]

1. To lean downward; as, the head declines toward the earth.
2. To lean from a right line; to deviate; in a literal sense.
3. To lean or deviate from rectitude, in a moral sense; to leave the path of truth or justice, or the course prescribed. Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. Ps. cxix.157.
4. To fall; to tend or draw toward the close; as, the day declines.
5. To avoid or shun; to refuse; not to comply; not to do; as, he declined to take any part in the concern.
6. To fall; to fail; to sink; to decay; to be impaired; to tend to a less perfect state; as, the vigor of youth declines in age; health declines; virtue declines; religion declines; national credit and prosperity decline, under a corrupt administration.
7. To sink; to diminish; to fall in value; as, the prices of land and goods decline at the close of a war.

DE-CLINE', v.t.

1. To bend downward; to bring down. In melancholy deep, with head declined. Thomson.
2. To bend to one side; to move from a fixed point or right line.
3. To shun or avoid; to refuse; not to engage in; to be cautious not to do or interfere; not to accept or comply with; as, he declined the contest; he declined the offer; he declined the business or pursuit.
4. To inflect; to change the termination of a word, for forming the oblique cases; as, Dominus, Domini, Domino, Dominum, Domine.

DE-CLIN'ED, pp.

Bent downward or from; inflected.

DE-CLIN'ING, ppr.

Leaning; deviating; falling; failing; decaying; tending to a worse state; avoiding; refusing; inflecting.

DE-CLIN'OUS, a.

Declinate; bent downward. Botany.

DE-CLIV'I-TY, n. [L. declivitas, from declivis, sloping; de and clivus. See Cliff.]

Declination from a horizontal line; descent of land; inclination downward; a slope; a gradual descent of the earth, of a rock or other thing; chiefly used of the earth, and opposed to acclivity, or ascent; the same slope, considered as descending, being a declivity, and considered as ascending, an acclivity.

DE-CLI'VOUS, or DE-CLIV'I-TOUS, a.

Gradually descending; not precipitous; sloping.

DE-COCT', v.t. [L. decoquo, decoctum; de and coquo, to cook, to boil.]

1. To prepare by boiling; to digest in hot or boiling water. Bacon.
2. To digest by the heat of the stomach; to prepare as food for nourishing the body. Davies.
3. To boil in water, for extracting the principles or virtues of a substance. Bacon.
4. To boil up to a consistence; to invigorate. Shak. [This verb is little used, and in its last sense, is hardly proper.]

DE-COCT'ED, pp.

Prepared by boiling.

DE-COCT'I-BLE, a.

That may be boiled or digested.

DE-COC'TION, n. [Fr. decoction; It. decozione. See Decoct.]

1. The act of boiling a substance in water, for extracting its virtues.
2. The liquor in which a substance has been boiled; water impregnated with the principles of any animal or vegetable substance boiled in it; as a weak or a strong decoction of Peruvian bark.

DE-COCT'IVE, a.

That may be easily decocted.

DE-COCT'URE, n.

A substance drawn by decoction.

DE'COL-LATE, v.t. [L. decollo.]

To behead. Burke.

DE'COL-LA-TED, pp.

Beheaded.

DE'COL-LA-TING, ppr.

Beheading.

DE-COL-LA'TION, n. [L. decollatio, from decollo, to behead; de and collum, the neck.]

The act of beheading; the act of cutting off the neck of an animal, and severing the head from the body. It is especially used of St. John the Baptist, and of a painting which represents his beheading.