decline

将“decline”想象成“de-”表示向下，结合“cline”发音类似“克林”，就如同克林领导的军队在向下走，意味着拒绝或降低。这种场景可以帮你记住“decline”表示拒绝或衰退的意思。

decline 下降，婉言拒绝

de-, 向下，离开。-clin, 弯，转，词源同lean, incline. 即向下转开，引申义婉言拒绝。

decline

decline: [14] The notion underlying decline is of ‘bending away’. It comes via Old French decliner from Latin dēclināre ‘turn aside, go down’, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē-, ‘away, aside’ and clināre ‘bend’, which also produced English incline and recline and is related to lean. Its Latin nominal derivative dēclinātiō has bifurcated in English, to produce declination [14] and, via Old French declinaison, declension [15].

The latter is used only in the specialized grammatical sense ‘set of inflectional endings of a noun’, already present in Latin, which derives from the concept that every inflected form of a word represents a ‘falling away’ from its uninflected base form (the same underlying notion appears in the term oblique case ‘any grammatical sense other than the nominative or vocative’, and indeed the word case itself, whose etymological meaning is ‘fall’; and there are perhaps traces of it in inflection, literally ‘bending’).
=> declension, incline, lean, recline

decline (v.)

late 14c., "to turn aside, deviate," from Old French decliner "to sink, decline, degenerate, turn aside," from Latin declinare "to lower, avoid, deviate, to bend from, inflect," from de- "from" (see de-) + clinare "to bend," from PIE *klei-n-, suffixed form of *klei- "to lean" (see lean (v.)). Sense has been altered since c. 1400 by interpretation of de- as "downward." Meaning "not to consent, politely refuse," is from 1630s. Related: Declined; declining.

decline (n.)

early 14c., "deterioration, degeneration," from Old French declin (see decline (v.)).

1. After years of neglect and decline the city was cleaning itself up.

多年的玩忽职守和经济萧条过后，这个城市在进行自我整顿。

2. The electoral fortunes of the Liberal Democratic party may decline.

自由民主党的选举运势可能会下降。

3. He criticised the government for failing to halt economic decline.

他批评政府未能遏止经济下滑。

4. The decline in marriage has been offset by a rise in cohabitation.

结婚人数的减少由于同居人数的增加而得以弥补。

5. I think we can date the decline of Western Civilization quite precisely.

我认为我们可以相当准确地确定西方文明开始衰落的年代。

【refuse, reject, deny, decline, protest, object】
refuse: 拒绝，回绝，不肯，不愿
reject: 拒绝接受，抛弃，抵制
deny: 否认，否定
decline: 谢绝，decline sth
protest: 抗议，反对，protest about/against/at sth
object: 不赞成，抗议，object to sb/sth

【reject, deny, decline, repel, frfuse】
这组词都有“拒绝”的意思，其区别是：
reject: 多指由于某物某事某行为不能让人满意而被当面直截了当地拒绝。
deny: 指坚决地拒绝接受、给予或承认。
decline: 指婉言谢绝他人的帮助或邀请等。
repel: 作“拒绝”解时，语气比reject强。
frfuse: 语气较重，指态度坚决，肯定无疑的拒绝。

【diminish, decline, alleviate, decrease, reduce】
这组词都有“减少，减轻”的意思，其区别是：
diminish: v.指因为不断消耗，在数量方面缓慢减少，也指在素质或者价值的下降。
• The supply of oil has diminished because of the war. 由于战争石油的供应减少了。
decline: v. (数目、价格、比率)下降；谢绝，婉言推辞；衰退，衰落。
• Last year, the crime rate in Chicago has sharply declined. 去年芝加哥的犯罪率明显下降。
• He declined our invitation to dinner. 他婉拒了我们请他吃饭的邀请。
alleviate: v.在痛苦方面的减轻，缓和
• The painkiller alleviated the pain. 止疼药减缓了疼痛。
decrease: v.指数量上的减少；力量或者强度的减弱。
• The population decreased a lot last year. 去年人口数量急剧下降。
reduce: v.指人为地使某物在数量或重量方面的减少或降低。
• He reduced the amount of money they could spend. 他缩减了他们的开销。