declined; declining
1
: to become less in amount
The price of the stock declined.
2
: to tend toward an inferior state or weaker condition
his health declined
Employee morale declined after the layoffs.
3
: to withhold consent
We invited him but he declined.
4
a
of a celestial body
: to sink toward setting
the declining sun
b
: to draw toward a close : wane
the day declined
5
a
: to slope downward : descend
b
: to bend down : droop
… eyes … declining toward the ground …—
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
c
: to stoop (see stoop entry 1 sense 3b) to what is unworthy
… the direful shameful state Adam declined into …—Edward Taylor
Edward Taylor6
archaic
: to turn from a straight course : stray
1
a
: to refuse especially courteously
decline an invitation
declined to give her name to the reporter
b
: to refuse to undertake, undergo, engage in, or comply with
decline battle
2
grammar
: to give in prescribed order the grammatical forms of (a noun, pronoun, or adjective)
decline the Latin adjective "brevis"
3
: to cause to bend or bow downward
… the clover … declines its blooms.—W. C. Bryant
W. C. Bryant1
: the process of declining:
a period of economic decline
a decline in the local bird population
a
: a gradual physical or mental sinking and wasting away
experiencing a mental decline
b
: a change to a lower state or level
the decline of the aristocracy
2
: the period during which something is deteriorating or approaching its end
an empire in decline
3
: a downward slope
built on a slight decline
4
: a wasting disease
especially
: pulmonary tuberculosis
Synonyms
Examples of decline in a Sentence
Verb
The construction of new houses declined five percent this year.
The animal's numbers are declining rapidly.
My grandmother's health has been declining since she broke her hip.
The civilization began to decline around 1000 B.C.
The company declined comment on the scandal.
He changed his mind and declined the company's offer.
I invited him, but he declined.
Noun
a period of economic decline
He says that American industry is in a state of decline.
The town fell into decline after the factory closed down.
The economy experienced a decline of two million jobs.
We saw a sharp decline in sales this month.
Declines led advances at the end of the trading day.
There was some decline in stock prices at the end of the trading session.
Recent Examples on the WebIsabelle Khurshudyan, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024
My mom passed away in 2023 after gradually declining from Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia and myelodysplastic syndrome for a couple of years.
—Phoebe Zerwick, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2024
Pollinators underpin our ecosystems and food supply, but Britain’s flying insect population has declined by as much as 60 percent in the past 20 years.
—Frankie Adkins, WIRED, 10 Apr. 2024
If this does not change, and its industries remain dependent on components from China, then the influence of Europe’s automakers will decline not only in Europe but globally.
—Ryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 10 Apr. 2024
Coelacanth fish, for example, have been swimming the ocean for approximately 360 million years, reaching a maximum of around 90 species and then declining to the two species known to be living today.
—Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Apr. 2024
And as with natural conception, success rates decline with age, a cruel fact that means people who use fertility treatments as an insurance plan sometimes still face an uphill battle.
—Jamie Ducharme, TIME, 10 Apr. 2024
The increase comes as the rural population has continued to decline and small farms are being bought out by larger, corporate farms.
—Daniel Desrochers, Kansas City Star, 9 Apr. 2024
Her then boyfriend Carl (who declined to be interviewed) wrote her resignation letter for her.
—Sophie Elmhirst, The New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2024
Alicia Wallace, CNN, 11 Apr. 2024
The findings suggest that a decline in water clarity hurts loon reproductive success.
—Gaby Vinick, ABC News, 10 Apr. 2024
The Seattle Times The intense backlash against Boeing after the near catastrophe aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 Max in January wasn’t a reaction to an isolated manufacturing error but to a yearslong decline of safety standards.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 10 Apr. 2024
On top of the property crisis, China is also grappling with local government debt, a stock market rout and a decline in exports and foreign direct investment amid geopolitical tensions.
—Jennifer Jett, NBC News, 10 Apr. 2024
The results, showing small declines in support for Ukraine, seem wholly unreliable but were passed along to the strategists’ Kremlin masters as measures of success.
—Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2024
From 1910 until recent years, kelp has experienced a roughly 7 percent decline along the entire California coast.
—Olivia Ferrari, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Apr. 2024
That marked a nearly 40% decline from the previous year, and the lowest since 2009.
—Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee, 8 Apr. 2024
Shareholder payouts rebounded in the fourth quarter for S&P 500 companies, and buybacks revived after four consecutive quarters of declines, BI data show.
—Jess Menton, Fortune, 7 Apr. 2024
Verb
Western aid has declined in recent months — particularly from the United States, Ukraine’s biggest backer, where Republicans in Congress for months have blocked a roughly $60 billion package proposed by President Biden.
—Isabelle Khurshudyan, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024
My mom passed away in 2023 after gradually declining from Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia and myelodysplastic syndrome for a couple of years.
—Phoebe Zerwick, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2024
Pollinators underpin our ecosystems and food supply, but Britain’s flying insect population has declined by as much as 60 percent in the past 20 years.
—Frankie Adkins, WIRED, 10 Apr. 2024
If this does not change, and its industries remain dependent on components from China, then the influence of Europe’s automakers will decline not only in Europe but globally.
—Ryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 10 Apr. 2024
Coelacanth fish, for example, have been swimming the ocean for approximately 360 million years, reaching a maximum of around 90 species and then declining to the two species known to be living today.
—Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Apr. 2024
And as with natural conception, success rates decline with age, a cruel fact that means people who use fertility treatments as an insurance plan sometimes still face an uphill battle.
—Jamie Ducharme, TIME, 10 Apr. 2024
The increase comes as the rural population has continued to decline and small farms are being bought out by larger, corporate farms.
—Daniel Desrochers, Kansas City Star, 9 Apr. 2024
Her then boyfriend Carl (who declined to be interviewed) wrote her resignation letter for her.
—Sophie Elmhirst, The New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2024
Noun
Producers’ prices for goods fell 0.1%, a decline attributed to energy prices falling 1.6% for the month, moderating from February’s 4.1% monthly increase.
—Alicia Wallace, CNN, 11 Apr. 2024
The findings suggest that a decline in water clarity hurts loon reproductive success.
—Gaby Vinick, ABC News, 10 Apr. 2024
The Seattle Times The intense backlash against Boeing after the near catastrophe aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 Max in January wasn’t a reaction to an isolated manufacturing error but to a yearslong decline of safety standards.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 10 Apr. 2024
On top of the property crisis, China is also grappling with local government debt, a stock market rout and a decline in exports and foreign direct investment amid geopolitical tensions.
—Jennifer Jett, NBC News, 10 Apr. 2024
The results, showing small declines in support for Ukraine, seem wholly unreliable but were passed along to the strategists’ Kremlin masters as measures of success.
—Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2024
From 1910 until recent years, kelp has experienced a roughly 7 percent decline along the entire California coast.
—Olivia Ferrari, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Apr. 2024
That marked a nearly 40% decline from the previous year, and the lowest since 2009.
—Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee, 8 Apr. 2024
Shareholder payouts rebounded in the fourth quarter for S&P 500 companies, and buybacks revived after four consecutive quarters of declines, BI data show.
—Jess Menton, Fortune, 7 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'decline.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near decline
Cite this Entry
“Decline.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decline. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
decline
1 of 2 verb
de·cline
di-ˈklīn 
declined; declining
1
a
: to slope downward : descend
b
: to bend down
declined his head
2
: to pass toward a lower state or level
his health declined
their enthusiasm declined
3
: to draw toward a close : wane
the day declined
4
: to become less in amount
prices declined
5
a
: to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree to
declined to run for a second term
b
: to refuse especially courteously
declined the offer
6
: to give the declension of a noun, pronoun, or adjective
decline
2 of 2 noun1
: the process of declining:
a
: a gradual sinking and wasting away
b
: a change to a lower state or level
2
: the time when something is approaching its end
an empire in decline
3
: a downward slope
Medical Definition
decline
1 of 2 intransitive verb
de·cline
di-ˈklīn
declined; declining
: to tend toward an impaired state or a weaker condition
decline
2 of 2 noun1
: the process of declining
especially
: a gradual physical or mental sinking and wasting away
2
: the period during which the end of life is approaching
3
: a wasting disease
especially
: pulmonary tuberculosis
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