different between droop vs decline

English

Etymology

From Middle English droupen, from Old Norse drúpa (“to droop”), from Proto-Germanic *dr?pan?, *drup?n? (“to hang down, drip, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?rewb- (“to drip, drop”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: dr?p, IPA^(key): /?d?u?p/
• Rhymes: -u?p
• Homophone: drupe

Verb

droop (third-person singular simple present droops, present participle drooping, simple past and past participle drooped)

1. (intransitive) To hang downward; to sag.
   • 1866, John Keegan Casey, “Maire My Girl” in A Wreath of Shamrocks, Dublin: Robert S. McGee, p. 20,^[1]

     On the brown harvest tree

     Droops the red cherry.

   • a. 1992, quote attributed to Sylvester Stallone

     I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.

2. (intransitive) To slowly become limp; to bend gradually.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act III, Scene 2,^[2]

     Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

     While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

   • 1676, Thomas Hobbes (translator), Homer’s Iliads in English, London: William Crook, Book 18, p. 289,^[3]

     The Grapes that on it hung were black, and all

     The Vines supported and from drooping staid

     With silver Props, that down they could not fall […]

   • Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth […].
3. (intransitive) To lose all energy, enthusiasm or happiness; to flag.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, Scene 1,^[4]

     But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?

   • 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, London: Jacob Tonson, XII, p. 17,^[5]

     Amidst the peaceful Triumphs of his Reign,

     What wonder if the kindly beams he shed

     Reviv’d the drooping Arts again […]

   • 1711, Jonathan Swift, “The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff’s Predictions” in Miscellanies, London: John Morphew, p. 284,^[6]

     I saw him accidentally once or twice about 10 Days before he died, and observed he began very much to Droop and Languish […]

   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy, London: J. Tonson, Act I, Scene 2, p. 5,^[7]

     I’ll animate the Soldier’s drooping Courage,

     With Love of Freedom, and Contempt of Life.

4. (transitive) To allow to droop or sink.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act II, Scene 5,^[8]

     […] pithless arms, like to a wither’d vine

     That droops his sapless branches to the ground;

   • 1892, Arthur Christopher Benson, “Knapweed” in Le Cahier Jaune: Poems, Eton: privately printed, p. 62,^[9]

     Down in the mire he droops his head;

     Forgotten, not forgiven.

5. To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 11, lines 175-178,^[10]

     […] let us forth,

     I never from thy side henceforth to stray,

     Wherere our days work lies, though now enjoind

     Laborious, till day droop […]

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “The Princess” in The Princess; a Medley, London: Edward Moxon, p. 46,^[11]

     […] and now when day

     Droop’d, and the chapel tinkled, mixt with those

     Six hundred maidens clad in purest white […]

Derived terms

• droopage

Translations

Noun

droop (plural droops)

1. Something which is limp or sagging.
2. A condition or posture of drooping.

3. (aviation) A hinged portion of the leading edge of an aeroplane's wing, which swivels downward to increase lift during takeoff and landing.

Coordinate terms

(part of aeroplane wing):

• slat

Translations

Derived terms

• brewer's droop
• droop nose
• droop snoot

Related terms

• drooped
• drooping
• droopy

References

• droop at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Podor

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -o?p

Verb

droop

1. singular past indicative of druipen

English

Etymology

From Middle English declinen, from Old French decliner, from Latin declinare (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”), from de (“down”) + cl?n? (“I bend, I incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *?ley- (English lean).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??kla?n/
• Hyphenation: de?cline
• Rhymes: -a?n

Noun

decline (countable and uncountable, plural declines)

1. Downward movement, fall.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
4. A weakening.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. A reduction or diminution of activity.
6. The act of declining or refusing something.

Antonyms

• incline

Translations

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.

2. (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.

3. (transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.

   • in melancholy site, with head declined
4. (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.

   • You have declin'd his means.

   • He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it.

5. To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.

   a line that declines from straightness

   conduct that declines from sound morals

   • Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

6. (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.
   • 1626, Philip Massinger, The Roman Actor

     Could I decline this dreadful hour?

7. (transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number and sometimes gender; more specifically, to recite all the different declined forms of a noun.
   • 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster (first edition)

     after the first declining of a noun and a verb

8. (by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.
9. (American football, Canadian football) To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.

   The team chose to decline the fifteen-yard penalty because their receiver had caught the ball for a thirty-yard gain.

Usage notes

• Decline, refuse, forbear, refrain: Decline is gentler than refuse and carries a connotation that the non-acceptance is an acceptable or anticipated option (decline an invitation) or the result of a considered decision (the judge declined to grant the motion). Refuse has a stronger connotation of rejection, firmness, resistance, or non-compliance. For example, if someone declines to give their name, that suggests they were given a choice and elected not to give their name. If someone refuses to give their name, the connotation is more toward a suggestion that they normally should have given their name and are being intransigent. Forbear or refrain, conversely, suggest choosing not to do something that one might indulge in or be tempted to do (refrain from smoking), with forbear having an added connotation of showing some fortitude in withstanding the temptation (forbear to show anger). Refrain can also be used to refer to a general policy or preference rather than a choice on a single occasion.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• decline in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• decline in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• decline at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Delnice

Portuguese

Verb

decline

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of declinar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of declinar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of declinar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of declinar

Romanian

Verb

decline

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of declina
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of declina

Spanish

Verb

decline

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of declinar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of declinar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of declinar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of declinar.