declining

4 definitions • 7 examples

present participle of

to gradually become less, worse, or lower:

His interest in the project declined after his wife died.

The party's popularity has declined in the opinion polls.

formal The land declines sharply away from the house.

to refuse:

I invited him to the meeting but he declined.

He declined my offer.

[ + to infinitive ] They declined to tell me how they had obtained my address.

If a noun, pronoun, or adjective declines, it has different forms to show if it is the subject or object, etc. of a verb or if it is singular or plural, etc. If you decline such a word, you list its various forms:

In Latin we learned how to decline nouns.