Decline vs Relieve - What's the difference?
decline | relieve |
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=
A reduction or diminution of activity.
*
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
* Spenser
To cause to decrease or diminish.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
* Burton
To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.
* Bible, Psalms cxix. 157
To refuse, forbear.
* Massinger
* , chapter=7
, title= To inflect for case, number and sometimes gender.
* Ascham
(by extension) To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.
(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.
To ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}
To ease (someone, a part of the body etc.) or give relief from physical pain or discomfort.
To alleviate (pain, distress, mental discomfort etc.).
To provide comfort or assistance to (someone in need, especially in poverty).
(obsolete) To lift up; to raise again.
(legal) To free (someone) from debt or legal obligations; to give legal relief to.
To bring military help to (a besieged town); to lift the seige on.
To release (someone) from or of a difficulty, unwanted task, responsibility etc.
(military, job) To free (someone) from their post, task etc. by taking their place.
* 1819 , (Lord Byron), , III.76:
* 1927 , (Countee Cullen), From the Dark Tower :
(reflexive) To go to the toilet; to defecate or urinate.
As verbs the difference between decline and relieve
is that decline is while relieve is to ease (a person, person's thoughts etc) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of.As an adjective decline
is declined.decline
English
Noun
(en noun)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.}}
- 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
* inclineVerb
(declin)- in melancholy deep, with head declined
- And now fair Phoebus gan decline in haste / His weary wagon to the western vale.
- You have declined his means.
- He knoweth his error, but will not seek to decline it.
- a line that declines from straightness
- conduct that declines from sound morals
- Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.
- Could I decline this dreadful hour?
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.}}
- after the first declining of a noun and a verb
- (Shakespeare)
- The team chose to decline the fifteen-yard penalty because their receiver had caught the ball for a thirty-yard gain.
Derived terms
* declension * declinationExternal links
* * * ----relieve
English
Verb
(reliev)- This shall not relieve either Party of any obligations.
- The henna should be deeply dyed to make / The skin relieved appear more fairly fair [...].
- The night whose sable breast relieves the stark / White stars is no less lovely being dark