Word.ws English Dictionary

declining

Syllables: de·clin·ing/dɪˈklaɪnɪŋ/

declining is the present participle and gerund of decline.

Meaning of decline

Verb

decline (third-person singular simple present declines, present participle declining, simple past and past participle declined)

  1. (intransitive) To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
    • The dollar has declined rapidly since 2001.
  2. (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.
    • My health declined in winter.
  3. (transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
    • in melancholy site, with head declineda. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC
  4. (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.
    • You have declin'd his means.1612–1613, Nathan Field, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Honest Mans Fortune”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647...
  5. To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.
    • a line that declines from straightness
  6. (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.
    • Could I decline this dreadful hour?1626, Philip Massinger, The Roman Actor

See all 15 meanings of decline

Noun

declining (plural declinings)

  1. decline
    • c. 1572', John Whitgift, Admonition to the Parliament
      For they had no civil magistrate which might correct and reform those declinings when they happened.

Forms of declining

pluraldeclinings

Words that rhyme with declining

Questions about declining

What does declining mean?
Declining means decline.
What is declining the present participle and gerund of?
Declining is the present participle and gerund of decline.
What part of speech is declining?
Declining is a noun.
How do you pronounce declining?
Declining is pronounced /dɪˈklaɪnɪŋ/.
What is the plural of declining?
The plural of declining is declinings.

Words near declining in the dictionary

  1. decliner
  2. decliners
  3. declines
  4. declinest
  5. declineth
  6. declining
  7. decliningly
  8. declinings
  9. declinism
  10. declinist
  11. declinists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: declining (page history and authors); decline (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-declining.ogg.

Cite this entry: “declining.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/declining. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.