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Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me. Johnson. We . . . dawdle up and down Pall Mall. Thackeray.

A prefix from Latin de down, from, away; as in debark, decline, decease, deduct, decamp. In words from the French it is equivalent to Latin dis- apart, away; or sometimes to de. Cf. Dis-. It is negative and opposite in derange, deform, destroy, etc. It is intensive in deprave, despoil, declare, desolate, etc.…

A breaking or bursting forth; a violent rush or flood of waters which breaks down opposing barriers, and hurls forward and disperses blocks of stone and other débris.

Turned upside down from its proper position; inverted; reversed.

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.

Bent downward or aside; (Bot.) bending downward in a curve; declined.

The act or state of bending downward; inclination; as, declination of the head.

To bend, or lean downward; to take a downward direction; to bend over or hang down, as from weakness, weariness, despondency, etc.; to condescend. "With declining head." Shak. He . . . would decline even to the lowest of his family. Lady Hutchinson. Disdaining to decline, Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries. Byron…

Descending gradually; moderately steep; sloping; downhill.

Deviation from a horizontal line; gradual descent of surface; inclination downward; slope; -- opposed to acclivity, or ascent; the same slope, considered as descending, being a declivity, which, considered as ascending, is an acclivity.

Broken down with age; wasted and enfeebled by the infirmities of old age; feeble; worn out. "Beggary or decrepit age." Milton. Already decrepit with premature old age. Motley.

A crying down; a clamorous censure; condemnation by censure.

To cry down; to censure as faulty, mean, or worthless; to clamor against; to blame clamorously; to discredit; to disparage. For small errors they whole plays decry. Dryden. Measures which are extolled by one half of the kingdom are naturally decried by the other. Addison.

Act of lying down; decumbence. [Obs.] Evelyn.

An attitude assumed in lying down; as, the dorsal decubitus.

The act or posture of lying down. The ancient manner of decumbency. Sir T. Browne.

Lying down; prostrate; recumbent. The decumbent portraiture of a woman. Ashmole.

The act of running down; a lapse. [R.] Gauden.

Extending downward; -- said of a leaf whose base extends downward and forms a wing along the stem. -- De*cur"rent*ly, adv.

Running down; decurrent.