DECLENSION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Declension

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noun

Declension n.

1.

The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope. "The declension of the land from that place to the sea."

2.

A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc. "Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension."

3.

Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination.

4.

(Gram.)

(a)

Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the grammatical cases.

(b)

The form of the inflection of a word declined by cases; as, the first or the second declension of nouns, adjectives, etc.

(c)

Rehearsing a word as declined. Note: The nominative was held to be the primary and original form, and was likened to a perpendicular line; the variations, or oblique cases, were regarded as fallings (hence called casus, cases, or fallings) from the nominative or perpendicular; and an enumerating of the various forms, being a sort of progressive descent from the noun's upright form, was called a declension.

Declension of the needle, declination of the needle.

See images of 'Declension'

Etymology of 'Declension'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Declension" Quotes from Famous Books

... enabled her to accomplish was the cause; or, not improbably, a cherished satisfaction in the blessing she had received, instead of in the BLESSER Himself, may have led to the separation. She seems to have been largely unconscious of her declension; self-occupied and self-contented, she scarcely noticed His absence; she was resting, resting alone,—never asking where He had gone, or how He was employed. And more than this, the door of her chamber was not only closed, but barred; an evidence that His ...

— Union And Communion - or Thoughts on the Song of Solomon • J. Hudson Taylor

... an answer he had once received from a schoolboy. He asked the boy whether he had learned the declension of nouns. "Yes," answered the boy. "Well, then decline 'Paw.'" "What paw? A dog's paw?" the boy answered, with a sly expression on his face. Similar answers in the form of questions Nekhludoff found in scientific books ...

— The Awakening - The Resurrection • Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy

... represent John the Baptist, who had nothing to do with a cross, as holding a cross; if it be not that while Jesus was supposed to represent the Sun in its annual ascension, John was supposed to represent the Sun in its annual declension? What other rational explanation have we of the facts, (1) that John is represented as saying that he baptised with water but that Jesus would baptise with fire (where the rains of winter and the heat of summer may be referred to); and (2) that the Christian ...

— The Non-Christian Cross - An Enquiry Into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion • John Denham Parsons

... movement for short services began in the Cameronian kirk of Cairn Edward. They are an hour and twenty minutes now—a sore declension, as ...

— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett

... greatly pleased. I had already begun Latin with my father, and had vainly endeavoured to share my educational advantages with Mrs. Bundle, by teaching her the first declension. ...

— A Flat Iron for a Farthing - or Some Passages in the Life of an only Son • Juliana Horatia Ewing

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