declination
(dɛklɪˈneɪʃən)
[a. OF. déclinacion, ad. L. dēclīnātiōn-em, n. of action f. dēclīnāre to decline. In some senses perh. a direct adaptation of the L. word.]
The action of declining.
† 1. A turning aside, swerving, deviation from a standard; turning aside (from rectitude, etc.); falling away; = declension 2. Obs.
| 1533 More Answ. Poysoned Bk. Wks. 1035/2 Declinacion into foule and filthy talking. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. 128 The declinations from Religion. 1659 Hammond On Ps. ci. 3. 496 The least declination from the rules of justice. 1673 Lady's Call. i. §3. 24 The declinations to any vice are gradual. 1814 Southey Roderick x. Poems IX. 94 The slight bias of untoward chance Makes his best virtue from the even line, With fatal declination, swerve aside. |
† 2. An inclination or leaning (away
from or
towards anything); a mental bias.
Obs.| a 1605 Stow Q. Eliz. an. 1581 (R.), Letters..signefying the queen's declination from marriage, and the people's unwillingness to match that way. 1622 Donne Serm. (1624) 15 Saint Augustine himself had, at first, some declination towards that opinion. |
3. A leaning, bending, or sloping downwards; slope, inclination from the vertical or horizontal position.
| 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. ii. 16 Let it settle..then by declination poure away the cleerest. 1616 Bullokar, Declination, a bending downeward. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. ii. §16 For this purpose he invented a motion of declination..he supposed..the descent not to be in a perpendicular right line, but to decline a little. a 1742 Bentley (J.), This declination of atoms in their descent, was itself either necessary or voluntary. 1816 Scott Antiq. xiii, A declination of the Antiquary's stiff backbone acknowledged the preference. 1846 Joyce Sci. Dial. x. 23 A small declination..would throw the line of direction out of the base. |
† 4. A sinking into a lower position; descent towards setting;
= declining vbl. n. 4.
Obs.| 1503 Hawes Examp. Virt. i. 5 In Septembre in fallynge of the lefe Whan phebus made his declynacyon. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Trav. Wks. iii. 84/2 Beeing a man famous through Europe, Asia, Affricke, and America, from the Orientall exhaltation of Titan, to his Occidental declination. |
† 5. The gradual falling off from a condition of prosperity or vigour; decline; decay.
Obs.| 1533 More Apol. xviii. Wks. 878/2 In this declinacion of the worlde. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. vi. (Arb.) 27 Then aboutes began the declination of the Romain Empire. a 1638 Mede View Apoc. Wks. (1672) v. 923 His Declination and Ruine we see is already begun. 1673 H. Stubbe Vind. Dutch War 82 The declination of antient Learning. 1799 Washington Let. Writ. (1893) XIV. 191 Although I have abundant cause to be thankful for..good health..yet I am not insensible to my declination in other respects. |
† 6. The withholding of acceptance; non acceptance, modest or courteous refusal; declinature. ?
Obs.| 1612–5 Bp. Hall Contempl. O.T. xii. v, A modest declination of that honour, which he saw must come. ― Contempl. N.T. iv. x, A voluntary declination of their familiar conversation. 1884 Pall Mall G. 21 Aug. 5/1 [The author] must excuse our declination to accept as possible characters in any possible social system, people so unnatural. |
7. Astron. The angular distance of a heavenly body (north or south) from the celestial equator, measured on a meridian passing through the body: corresponding to terrestrial
latitude. Formerly also the angular distance from the ecliptic.
(The earliest and now most usual sense.)
circle or
parallel of declination: see
circle 2 a,
parallel.
| c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 518 Phebus..That in his hoote declynacion Shoon as the burned gold with stremes brighte. c 1391 ― Astrol. i. §17 In this heued of Cancer is the grettest declinacioun northward of the Sonne. Ibid. ii. §17 Al be it so þat fro the Equinoxial may the declinacion or the latitude of any body celestial be rikned..riht so may the latitude or the declinacion of any body celestial, saue only of the sonne..be rekned fro the Ecliptik lyne. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 47 The mouyng, eleuatione, and declinatione of the sone, mune, and of the sternis. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. ii. (ed. 7) 113 The greatest declination which is 23 degrees, 28{p}. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 390 In consequence of the different declinations of the sun and moon at different times. 1816 Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 7 The arch of that circle intercepted between the star and the Equator is called the Declination of the star. 1872 Proctor Ess. Astron. i. 2 To Herschel astronomy was not a matter of right ascension and declination. |
8. Of the magnetic needle:
† a. Formerly, the
dip or deviation from the horizontal (
obs.);
b. the deviation from the true north and south line,
esp. the angular measure of this deviation; also called
variation.
| 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. iii. 66 The Declination is a magneticall motion, whereby the magneticall needle conuerts it selfe vnder the Horizontall plaine, towards the Axis of the Earth. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. ii. 61 The Inclination or Declination of the Loadstone; that is, the descent of the needle below the plaine of the Horizon. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi vi. 133 Magnetical observations, for ascertaining the dip and declination of the needle. 1878 Huxley Physiog. i. 10 The divergence of the position of the magnetic needle from the true north-and-south line is called its declination, or by nautical men, its variation. |
9. Dialling. Of a vertical plane (
e.g. that of a wall): The angular measure of its deviation from the prime vertical (the vertical plane through the east and west points of the horizon), or from the meridian (that through the north and south points).
| 1593 [see decline v. 2 b]. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. vii. vi. 11 The Declination of a Plane is the Azimuthal Distance of his Poles from the meridian. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 314 If it do not point directly either East, West, North, or South, then so many degrees is the Declination of the Plane. 1737–51 Chambers Cycl., Declination of a plane, or wall, in dialling. |
† 10. Gram. = declension 4.
Obs.| c 1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. i. i. 259 To teche hir of retoryk and gramer the scole..The declynacions, þe personys, the modys, þe tens. 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 29 Pronownes of the fyrst declynation. 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xxv. (1632) 85 We did tosse our declinations, and conjugations to and fro. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) I. xii. 105 A perfect ignoramus, who scarce knows the declination of musa. |
11. attrib. and
Comb., as
declination-needle;
declination axis, that axis of an equatorial telescope which is at right angles to the polar axis, and to which is attached at one end the telescope and at the other the declination circle, so called because when the position of the telescope is changed by turning the declination axis there is an alteration in the declination of the object viewed;
declination circle, (
a) (see
quot. 1854); (
b) the graduated circle on an equatorial telescope which marks the declinations of the heavenly bodies;
declination compass (see
quot.);
declination magnet, a magnet used in determining the magnetic declination and the magnetic axis.
| 1835 Mech. Mag. XXIV. 210/2 On these rollers turns the *declination axis. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 146/2 The equatorial in its simplest form consists of an axis parallel to the earth's axis, called the ‘polar axis’; a second axis, at right angles to this, called the ‘declination axis’; and a telescope fixed at right angles to the latter. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 17 Apr. 1/3 A large equatorial with a 26-in. photographic refractor at one end of the declination axis and a 30-in. reflector at the other. 1964 R. H. Baker Astron. (ed. 8) iv. 108 The circle on the declination axis is graduated in degrees of declination. |
| 1835 Mech. Mag. XXIV. 211, Y is the *declination circle, fixed on the declination axis. 1854 Moseley Astron. ix. (ed. 4) 41 Declination-circles are those great circles which pass round the heavens from one pole to the other. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 149/1 The declination circle is attached to the farther end of the declination axis. |
| 1862 Chambers's Encycl. III. 461/1 The ordinary compass which must be used by making allowance for declination, is a *declination compass. |
| 1883 Encycl. Brit. XV. 238/1 The first step is to remove the torsion as far as possible from the suspension fibre by hanging to it a brass plummet E of the same weight as the *declination magnet. After this weight has come to rest, it is replaced by the declination magnet. 1899 Daily News 3 Mar. 5/2 They have placed out here a declination magnet, a dip instrument for the inclination of the needle, and a deflexion instrument. |
| 1870 R. M. Ferguson Electr. 19 Instruments for determining magnetic declinations are called *declination needles or declinometers. |