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Decline vs Averse - What's the difference?

decline | averse |

As verbs the difference between decline and averse

is that decline is while averse is to turn away.

As adjectives the difference between decline and averse

is that decline is declined while averse is having a repugnance or opposition of mind.

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

    averse

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having a repugnance or opposition of mind.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2004
  • , author=Arthur Schopenhauer , title=Essays of Schopenhauer , chapter=2 citation , passage=This is why the most eminent intellects have always been strongly averse to any kind of disturbance, interruption and distraction, and above everything to that violent interruption which is caused by noise; other people do not take any particular notice of this sort of thing.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1885
  • , author=E. T. A. Hoffmann , title=The Entail citation , passage=“I assure you, cousin,” replied the old gentleman, “that the Baron, notwithstanding his unpleasant manner, is really one of the most excellent and kind-hearted men in the world. As I have already told you, he did not assume these manners until the time he became lord of the entail; previous to then he was a modest, gentle youth. Besides, he is not, after all, so bad as you make him out to be; and further, I should like to know why you are so averse to him.” As my uncle said these words he smiled mockingly, and the blood rushed hotly and furiously into my face.}}
  • Turned away or backward.
  • * Dryden
  • The tracks averse a lying notice gave, / And led the searcher backward from the cave.
  • (obsolete) Lying on the opposite side (to'' or ''from ).
  • Usage notes

    The terms (adverse) and averse'' are sometimes confused, though their meanings are somewhat different. ''Adverse'' most often refers to things, denoting something that is in opposition to someone's interests — something one might refer to as an (adversity) or (adversary) — (''adverse winds''; ''an attitude adverse to our ideals''). ''Averse'' usually refers to people, and implies one has a distaste, disinclination, or (aversion) toward something (''a leader averse to war''; ''an investor averse to risk taking''). ''Averse'' is most often used with "''to''" in a construction like "''I am averse to…''". ''Adverse shows up less often in this type of construction, describing a person instead of a thing, and should carry a meaning of "actively opposed to" rather than "has an aversion to".

    Synonyms

    * (having a repugnance) disliking, disinclined, fromward, unwilling, reluctant, loath

    Derived terms

    * aversely * averseness * risk-averse

    Verb

    (avers)
  • To turn away.
  • See also

    * adverse

    Anagrams

    * * * ----