noun

1. a bending or sloping downward; slope; descent
2. a falling off or away; decline, deterioration

3. Etymology: from the concept of cases as “declining” from the nominative: cf. case,

   Gram.
   1. a class of nouns, pronouns, or adjectives having the same or a similar system of inflections to show case
   2. the inflection of nouns, pronouns, or adjectives

Etymology: ME declenson < OFr declinaison < L declinatio, a bending aside, inflection (< pp. of declinare: see decline): ME form infl. by assoc. with L descensio, a descending: see descend