inclination
(ɪnklɪˈneɪʃən)
Also 5 en-.
[ad. F. inclination (Oresme, 14th c.), ad. L. inclīnātiōn-em, n. of action from inclīnāre to incline.]
I. 1. The action, or an act, of inclining or bending towards something: spec. a. A bending forward of the body or head in token of reverence or courtesy; a bow. (In quot. 1659, a bending.)
prayer of inclination, name for various prayers in the liturgies of the Eastern Church; esp. that between the Lord's Prayer and the Communion, also called the prayer of humble access.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 437 b/1 There he maketh a depe enclynacion. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 237 b, With genufleccyons or knelynges, inclinacyons, prostracyons, or other reuerence. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 300 With eight inclinations and foure prayings. 1659 Pearson Creed Art. vi (T.), To sit, doth not [here] signify any peculiar inclination or flexion, any determinate location or position, of the body. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 305 ¶14 To furnish them with Bows and Inclinations of all Sizes, Measures, and Proportions. c 1850 Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.) 412 Having made him a courteous inclination of the head, she proceeded on her route. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. viii, With a languid inclination of the head. |
† b. The sloping or tilting of a vessel in order to pour out the liquor from it without stirring up the sediment; decantation.
Obs.| 1641 French Distill. i. (1651) 9 Decantation, is the pouring off of any liquor which hath a setling, by inclination. 1694 Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 157/1 Separate the clear from the Fæces by Inclination. 1758 Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 306 Pour off the liquor by inclination, and wash the precipitate with fair water. |
† 2. fig. = declination 5,
decline n. 1.
rare.
| 1565 Harding in Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 370 Any other stocke, that ye can name since the inclination of the Roman Empire. |
3. The fact or condition of being inclined; deviation from the normal vertical or horizontal position or direction; leaning or slanting position; slope, slant.
| 1530 Palsgr. 234/1 Inclynation, inclinement. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vi. 44 There was a pleasaunt Arber, not by art But of the trees owne inclination made. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. iii. 167 The Angles of Inclination and Elevation will remain the same. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 124 This inclination undergoes some varieties in certain mountain-trees. 1799 Kirwan Geol. Ess. 335 A connexion between the inclination of the slip, and the elevation or depression of the strata. 1862 Smiles Engineers III. 175 The inclination of the gradients being towards the sea. |
b. The amount of slope or deviation from the horizontal position.
| 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 494 The drain has an inclination of one foot in 100 yards. 1851 Greenwell Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 31 An underground self-acting plane should not have a less inclination than 11/4 inch to the yard. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 143 When a river approaches the sea, the inclination of its basin usually diminishes. |
c. Dialling. The amount by which the plane of an inclining dial (see
incline v. 9 b) deviates from the vertical.
| 1593 T. Fale Dialling 4 If the angle which the plat maketh with the horizon be accute or sharp, then it doth incline. The quantity of inclination is thus known. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Inclination of a Plane, in dialing, is the arch of a vertical circle, perpendicular both to the plane and the horizon, and intercepted between them. |
d. The dip of the magnetic needle: see
dip n. 4. Hence
attrib. in
inclination-chart,
inclination-compass (
= dipping-compass),
inclination-equator,
inclination-pole.
| 1678 Hobbes Decam. viii. 101 The same Needle placed in a Plain perpendicular to the Horizon, hath another Motion called the Inclination. 1839 G. Bird Nat. Phil. 151 The dip or inclination of the needle. |
| attrib. 1870 R. M. Ferguson Electr. 44 The first inclination chart was published by Wilke. 1870 R. A. Proctor in Eng. Mech. 14 Jan. 424/2 As we leave either inclination-pole, the dipping needle leaves its vertical position, and gradually approaches the horizontal..until, along a curve lying midway between the two poles, the needle becomes exactly horizontal. This curve is called the magnetic inclination-equator. |
e. An inclined surface; an incline.
rare.
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XIX. 250/2 s.v. Railway, If..any inclination occur so steep that the ordinary power cannot ascend it by a reduction of speed. Ibid., On inclinations of much greater steepness. |
4. gen. (chiefly in
Geom.) The direction of a line, surface, or body, with respect to another line, surface, or body which has a different direction; the difference of direction of two lines, etc. regarded as ‘leaning’ or tending towards each other; usually, the amount of such difference measured by the angle which they make with each other (or would make if produced), called the
angle of inclination. In
Astron. sometimes
spec. the position of the plane of a planet's orbit in relation to that of the ecliptic, measured by the angle between them.
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid xi. def. iii. 313 Inclination or leaning of a right line, to a plaine superficies, is an acute angle. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. Wks. 1839 I. 198 An angle, which is made by two planes, is commonly called the inclination of those planes. 1704 Newton Optics (J.), The two rays, being equally refracted, have the same inclination to one another after refraction which they had before; that is, the inclination of half a degree answering to the sun's diameter. 1714 Derham Astro-Theol. iv. iv. (R.), The other lying in the broad path of the zodiack at an inclination of twenty-three and a half degrees. 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. 368 A course of above 200 leagues in a direct line from E. to W. with some, though insensible, inclinations to the S. 1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 538 The inclination of Mercury's orbit, to the plane of the ecliptic, is about 7°. 1880 Geikie Phys. Geog. i. 15 The alteration of the Seasons depends..upon the inclination of the earth's axis in its yearly orbit. |
b. Loosely used for the deviation of a line from the perpendicular to a given plane.
| 1854 Brewster More Worlds iv. 66 The small inclination of Jupiter's axis to the plane of its orbit, which is only about three degrees. 1868 Lockyer Guillemin's Heavens (ed. 3) 31 The Sun's axis of rotation is but slightly inclined..to the ideal plane in which our Earth moves round the Sun. If this inclination were nil [etc.]. |
II. 5. The action of inclining, bending, or directing the mind to something. ?
Obs.| 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxiv. (Percy Soc.) 110 Whan the comyn wytte hath the thinge electe, It werketh by all due inclynacyon For to brynge the mater to the hole effecte. 1529 More Dyaloge i. xxix. 45 b/1 That he shuld lede theym by secrete insperacyon and inclynacyon of theyr hartes in to all trouth. 1603 Bp. Matthews in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 74 Thus presuming your Grace will yield favourable inclination to this my dutiful and lowly petition. |
6. The condition of being mentally inclined or disposed to something, or an instance of such condition; a tendency or bent of the mind, will, or desires towards a particular object; disposition, propensity, leaning.
a. absol.| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 91 He..holly gaf his inclynaciouns, Duryng his lyf, to every vicyous thyng. 1490 Caxton How to Die 16 That he resiste his euyll enclynacyon. a 1540 Barnes Wks. (1573) 323/1 They are both inclinations of nature, implanted of God. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 524 Each his several way Pursues, as inclination or sad choice Leads him perplext. 1704–5 J. Logan in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 376 There seems to be growing on the inhabitants, in the main, much better inclinations. 1767 Junius Lett. iii. 19 It was taken from him, much against his inclination. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 139 Clarendon's inclinations were very different: but he was, from temper, interest, and principle, an obsequious courtier. 1897 Gladstone E. Crisis 2 Inclination does not suffice to justify silence. |
b. Const.
to,
for (
† of,
after,
toward) something:
to do something.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. i. (1495) 295 The more inclynacyon and appetyte it hath to spyrytuall fourme and shappe. 1533 More Debell. Salem Wks. 982/1 From the inclinacion toward pyty. 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 226 A certayn naturall inclination to make warre in Fraunce. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius v. 86 b, Alexander..had in him more enclinacion of heate then of pacience. 1691 Hartcliffe Virtues 5 Enough to draw off all our Inclinations after this World. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 264 ¶3, I have an Inclination to print the following Letters. 1845 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 18 The Frank warriors..showed an inclination of executing at once the sentence. 1859 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 17, I havn't time nor inclination for much letter-writing. |
c. Liking, affection.
| 1647 Cowley Mistr., My Diet iii, If you an Inclination have for me. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 33 ¶1 Daphne, despairing of any Inclination towards her Person, has depended only on her Merit. 1874 Motley Barneveld I. ii. 112, I love you with affection and inclination. 1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 195, I conceived that any inclination between a man and a woman would rather delay..the step. |
† d. General or permanent mental tendency; natural disposition; nature, character.
Obs.| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 615, I folwed ay myn Inclination By vertu of my constellacion. 1508 Dunbar Poems vii. 34 He of naturall inclinacioune Dois favour the. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 638 He hath giuen to all creatures a certaine inclination and nature, which he hath made their owne. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. v. 113 Bid him Report the feature of Octauia: her yeares, Her inclination, let him not leaue out The colour of her haire. 1713 Derham Phys. Theol. v. i. (1754) 270 There is the same Reason for the Variety of Genii, or Inclinations of Men. |
7. A tendency, disposition, or propensity to some physical condition or quality; formerly, the general character or nature (of a thing): now only as
fig. from 6 (with
const. as in b).
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iii. ii. 195 Men iudge by the complexion of the Skie The state and inclination of the day. 1616 [see inclined 4]. 1653 Holcroft Procopius, Goth. Wars i. 22 The whole inclination of the War depending on him. 1704 Addison Italy (J.), Though most of the thick woods are grubbed up since the promontory has been cultivated, there are still many spots of it which shew the natural inclination of the soil leans that way. 1899 Warehouseman & Draper 3 June 789 When he held yarn (or cloth) in such a manner that it could not shrink, and then immersed it in caustic soda, subsequently washing the caustic soda out again, the yarn no longer had any inclination to shrink. |
8. transf. a. An action or practice to which one is inclined. (Chiefly referring to an infinitive clause.)
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 2 b, Her naturall inclynacyon is to be abrode in the open ayre. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) I. ii. vii. 219 Traffic was the predominant inclination. 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) II. 348 The usual inclination of the wind in these seas..is to follow the sun from E. to S., S.S.W. and N. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 104 Thieving is a very prevalent inclination among them. 1885 F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sc. iii. 77 We do what it is our custom, our inclination, our character to do. |
† b. A person for whom one has a liking; a favourite. (Also in
pl. in same sense.)
Obs.| 1691 Temple Mem. 1672–9, iii, This was the Character of Monsieur Hoept, who was a great Inclination of mine. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iii. ii, Of the three brothers..Jack had, of late, been her inclination. |
III. 9. Gr. and
Lat. Gram. The throwing of the accent of an enclitic upon the last syllable of the word to which it is attached: see
incline v. 5.
| 1842 Jelf Gr. Gram. (1851) I. 61 The inclination of the accent is naturally subject to the general laws of accentuation. |