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(), n.[Apparently corrupted fr. F. dclinaison, fr. L. declinatio, fr. declinare. See Decline, and cf. Declination.] 1. The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope. The declension of the land from that place to the sea. T. Burnet. 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. Shak. 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. 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 f スポンサード リンク
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