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To bend or turn gradually from a given direction; as, the road curves to the right.

To pass gradually from a sound, prosperous, or perfect state, to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth ac…

Descending gradually; moderately steep; sloping; downhill.

To grow less, -- opposed to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc., or in strength, quality, or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December. He must increase, but I must decrease. John iii. 30.

The state of becoming gradually less; decrease; diminution; waste; loss. Twit me with the decrements of my pendants. Ford. Rocks, mountains, and the other elevations of the earth suffer a continual decrement. Woodward.

To dissolve gradually and become liquid by attracting and absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts, acids, and alkalies. In very moist air crystals of strontites deliquesce. Black.

To unfold gradually, as a flower from a bud; hence, to bring through a succession of states or stages, each of which is preparatory to the next; to form or expand by a process of growth; to cause to change gradually from an embryo, or a lower state, to a higher state or form of being; as, sunshine and rain develop the…

To disappear gradually in another surface, as where moldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.

In a gradually diminishing manner; with abatement of tone; decrescendo; -- expressed on the staff by Dim., or Dimin., or the sign.

To cease to appear or to be perceived; to pass from view, gradually or suddenly; to vanish; to be no longer seen; as, darkness disappears at the approach of light; a ship disappears as she sails from port.

arts and disappear; to waste away; to scatter; to disperse; to vanish; as, a fog or cloud gradually dissipates before the rays or heat of the sun; the heat of a body dissipates.

p; vanishing. -- Dis*solv"ing*ly, adv. Dissolving view, a picture which grows dim and is gradually replaced by another on the same field; -- an effect produced by magic lanterns.

eceding farther and farther from each other, as lines radiating from one point; deviating gradually from a given direction; -- opposed to convergent.

n the figure (see also Karyokinesis). At the same time the protoplasm of the cell becomes gradually constricted by a furrow transverse to the long axis of the nuclear spindle, followed, on the completion of the division of the nucleus, by a separation of the cell contents into two masses, called the daughter cells. --…

To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to cause the exhaustion of. Fountains drain the water from the ground adjacent. Bacon. But it was not alone that the he drained their treasure and hampered their industry. Motley.

To perform menial work; to labor in mean or unpleasant offices with toil and fatigue. He gradually rose in the estimation of the booksellers for whom he drudged. Macaulay.

with accommodations. [Obs.] Chaucer. To ease off, To ease away (Naut.), to slacken a rope gradually. -- To ease a ship (Naut.), to put the helm hard, or regulate the sail, to prevent pitching when closehauled. -- To ease the helm (Naut.), to put the helm more nearly amidships, to lessen the effect on the ship, or the…

, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to cause to disappear. To eat humble pie. See under Humble. -- To eat of (partitive use). "Eat of the bread that can not waste." Keble. -- To eat one's words, to retract what one has said. (See the Citation under Blur…

formation in which ossification takes place in the perichondrium and either surrounds or gradually replaces the cartilage.

To move sideways; to move gradually; as, edge along this way.