What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Abridge vs Decline - What's the difference?

abridge | decline |

As verbs the difference between abridge and decline

is that abridge is (archaic) to deprive; to cut off while decline is .

As an adjective decline is

declined.

abridge

English

Verb

(abridg)
  • (archaic) To deprive; to cut off.
  • (transitive, archaic, rare) To debar from.
  • To make shorter; to shorten in duration or extent.
  • * The bridegroom ... abridged his visit. - Smollett
  • * She retired herself to Sebaste, and abridged her train from state to necessity. - Fuller
  • To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense; as, to abridge a history or dictionary.
  • Cut short; truncate.
  • To curtail.
  • He had his rights abridged by the crooked sheriff.

    Usage notes

    * (deprive) Usually used with to' or sometimes with '''from''' as, to ' abridge one of his rights.

    Derived terms

    * abridged * abridger * abridgement

    Anagrams

    *

    References

    decline

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Downward movement, fall.(rfex)
  • A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.(rfex)
  • (senseid)A weakening.(rfex)
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Philip E. Mirowski , title=Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits , volume=100, issue=1, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.}}
  • A reduction or diminution of activity.
  • *
  • It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities.

    Antonyms

    * incline

    Verb

    (declin)
  • To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
  • To become weaker or worse.
  • To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
  • * Thomson
  • in melancholy deep, with head declined
  • * Spenser
  • And now fair Phoebus gan decline in haste / His weary wagon to the western vale.
  • To cause to decrease or diminish.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • You have declined his means.
  • * Burton
  • He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it.
  • To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.
  • a line that declines from straightness
    conduct that declines from sound morals
  • * Bible, Psalms cxix. 157
  • Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.
  • To refuse, forbear.
  • * Massinger
  • Could I decline this dreadful hour?
  • * , chapter=7
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.}}
  • To inflect for case, number and sometimes gender.
  • * Ascham
  • after the first declining of a noun and a verb
  • (by extension) To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (American 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.

    Derived terms

    * declension * declination