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Decline vs Dip - What's the difference?

decline | dip |

In intransitive terms the difference between decline and dip

is that decline is to become weaker or worse while dip is to incline downward from the plane of the horizon.

In transitive terms the difference between decline and dip

is that decline is to refuse, forbear while dip is to perform (a bow or curtsey) by inclining the body.

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

    dip

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) dippen, from (etyl) dyppan, from (etyl) , Dutch dopen, German taufen.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A lower section of a road or geological feature.
  • There is a dip in the road ahead.
  • Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line; slope; pitch.
  • The action of dipping or plunging for a moment into a liquid.
  • * Glover
  • the dip of oars in unison
  • A tank or trough where cattle or sheep are immersed in chemicals to kill parasites.
  • A dip stick.
  • A swim, usually a short swim to refresh.
  • I'm going for a dip before breakfast.
  • (colloquial, dated) A pickpocket.
  • * 1906 , Fred L. Boalt, " The Snitcher", McClure's Magazine v.26, p.633
  • The Moocher was a "dip " in a dilettante sort of way, and his particular graft was boarding street-cars with his papers and grabbing women's pocket-books.
  • A sauce for dipping.
  • This onion dip is just scrumptious.
  • (geology) The angle from horizontal of a planar geologic surface, such as a fault line.
  • (archaic) A dipped candle.
  • (Marryat)
    Derived terms
    * lucky dip

    Verb

    (dipp)
  • To lower into a liquid.
  • Dip your biscuit into your tea .
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
  • He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking to hear.
  • To immerse oneself; to become plunged in a liquid; to sink.
  • * Coleridge
  • The sun's rim dips ; the stars rush out.
  • (of a value or rate) To decrease slightly.
  • To lower a light's beam.
  • Dip your lights as you meet an oncoming car.
  • To lower (a flag), particularly a national ensign, to a partially hoisted position in order to render or to return a salute. While lowered, the flag is said to be “at the dip.” A flag being carried on a staff may be dipped by leaning it forward at an approximate angle of 45 degrees.
  • “The sailor rushed to the flag hoist to dip the flag in return.”
  • To treat cattle or sheep by immersion in chemical solution.
  • The farmer is going to dip the cattle today.
  • To use a dip stick to check oil level in an engine.
  • To consume snuff by placing a pinch behind the lip or under the tongue so that the active chemical constituents of the snuff may be absorbed into the system for their narcotic effect.
  • To immerse for baptism.
  • (Fuller)
  • * Charles Wheatly, A rational illustration of the Book of Common Prayer
  • during the reigns of King James and King Charles I, there were but very few children dipped in the font.
  • To wet, as if by immersing; to moisten.
  • * Milton
  • A cold shuddering dew / Dips me all o'er.
  • To plunge or engage thoroughly in any affair.
  • * Dryden
  • He was dipt in the rebellion of the Commons.
  • To take out, by dipping a dipper, ladle, or other receptacle, into a fluid and removing a part; often with out .
  • to dip''' water from a boiler; to '''dip out water
  • To perform the action of plunging a dipper, ladle. etc. into a liquid or soft substance and removing a part.
  • * L'Estrange
  • Whoever dips too deep will find death in the pot.
  • To engage as a pledge; to mortgage.
  • * Dryden
  • Live on the use and never dip thy lands.
  • To perform (a bow or curtsey) by inclining the body.
  • To incline downward from the plane of the horizon.
  • Strata of rock dip .
    Derived terms
    * dipper * you don't dip your pen in company ink

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A foolish person.
  • Anagrams

    * ----