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ll. -- Oblique narration. See Oblique speech. -- Oblique planes (Dialing), planes which decline from the zenith, or incline toward the horizon. -- Oblique sailing (Naut.), the movement of a ship when she sails upon some rhumb between the four cardinal points, making an oblique angle with the meridian. -- Oblique sp…

Direction conformable to that of another line, Lines that from their parallel decline. Garth.

To decline to play in one's turn; in euchre, to decline to make the trump. She would not play, yet must not pass. Prior. To bring to pass, To come to pass. See under Bring, and Come. -- To pass away, to disappear; to die; to vanish. "The heavens shall pass away." 2 Pet. iii. 10. "I thought to pass away before, but yet…

To plunge or fall; esp., to fall forward; to decline or slope; as, to pitch from a precipice; the vessel pitches in a heavy sea; the field pitches toward the east. Pitch and pay, an old aphorism which inculcates ready-money payment, or payment on delivery of goods. Shak.

ntentionally; with predetermination; designedly. In composing this discourse, I purposely declined all offensive and displeasing truths. Atterbury. So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng By chance go right, they purposely go wrong. Pope.

To recover strength after a decline in prices; -- said of the market, stocks, etc.

To deny, as a request, demand, invitation, or command; to decline to do or grant. That never yet refused your hest. Chaucer.

To refuse to receive or to acknowledge; to decline haughtily or harshly; to repudiate. That golden scepter which thou didst reject. Milton. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me. Hog. iv. 6.

To declare against; to reject or decline formally; to refuse to own or acknowledge as belonging to one; to disclaim; as, to renounce a title to land or to a throne.

rawal; seclusion; as, the retirement of an officer. O, blest Retirement, friend of life's decline. Goldsmith. Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books. Thomson.

The state of being retrograde; decline.

Hence, to decline from a better to a worse condition, as in morals or intelligence.

Renewed interest in religion, after indifference and decline; a period of religious awakening; special religious interest.

on account of the exhaustion of the motive power; -- said of clocks, watches, etc. (b) To decline in condition; as, to run down in health. -- To run down a coast, to sail along it. -- To run for an office, to stand as a candidate for an office. -- To run in or into. (a) To enter; to step in. (b) To come in collision…

To pass below the horizon; to go down; to decline; to sink out of sight; to come to an end. Ere the weary sun set in the west. Shak. Thus this century sets with little mirth, and the next is likely to arise with more mourning. Fuller.

To decline or deviate from the line of the proper course; to turn aside; to swerve; as, a ship sheers from her course; a horse sheers at a bicycle. To sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away. -- To sheer up, to approach obliquely.

To withdraw or retire, as from danger; to decline action from fear; to recoil, as in fear, horror, or distress. What happier natures shrink at with affright, The hard inhabitant contends is right. Pope. They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task. Jowett (Thucyd.)

To fall by, or as by, the force of gravity; to descend lower and lower; to decline gradually; to subside; as, a stone sinks in water; waves rise and sink; the sun sinks in the west. I sink in deep mire. Ps. lxix. 2.

Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme. [Obs.]

Or blend in beauteous tints the colored mass. Pope. Their vigor sickens, and their tints decline. Harte.