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Retreat vs Decline - What's the difference?

retreat | decline |

As verbs the difference between retreat and decline

is that retreat is to withdraw military forces while decline is .

As a noun retreat

is the act of pulling back or withdrawing, as from something dangerous, or unpleasant.

As an adjective decline is

declined.

retreat

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of pulling back or withdrawing, as from something dangerous, or unpleasant.
  • * Shakespeare
  • In a retreat he outruns any lackey.
  • The act of reversing direction and receding from a forward position.
  • A peaceful, quiet place affording privacy or security.
  • * L'Estrange
  • He built his son a house of pleasure, and spared no cost to make a delicious retreat .
  • * Dryden
  • That pleasing shade they sought, a soft retreat / From sudden April showers, a shelter from the heat.
  • A period of retirement, seclusion, or solitude.
  • A period of meditation, prayer or study.
  • Withdrawal by military force from a dangerous position or from enemy attack.
  • A signal for a military withdrawal.
  • A bugle call or drumbeat signaling the lowering of the flag at sunset, as on a military base.
  • A military ceremony to lower the flag.
  • (chess) The move of a piece from a threatened position.
  • See also

    * religious retreat

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To withdraw military forces.
  • Anagrams

    * *

    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