Dec`li*na"tion (?), n. [L.
declinatio a bending aside, an avoiding: cf. F.
déclination a decadence. See Declension.]
1. The act or state of bending downward;
inclination; as, declination of the head.
2. The act or state of falling off or
declining from excellence or perfection; deterioration; decay;
decline. "The declination of monarchy."
Bacon.
Summer . . . is not looked on as a time
Of declination or decay.
Waller.
3. The act of deviating or turning aside;
oblique motion; obliquity; withdrawal.
The declination of atoms in their
descent.
Bentley.
Every declination and violation of the
rules.
South.
4. The act or state of declining or refusing;
withdrawal; refusal; averseness.
The queen's declination from
marriage.
Stow.
5. (Astron.) The angular distance of
any object from the celestial equator, either northward or
southward.
6. (Dialing) The arc of the horizon,
contained between the vertical plane and the prime vertical circle,
if reckoned from the east or west, or between the meridian and the
plane, reckoned from the north or south.
7. (Gram.) The act of inflecting a
word; declension. See Decline, v. t.,
4.
Angle of declination, the angle made by a
descending line, or plane, with a horizontal plane. --
Circle of declination, a circle parallel to the
celestial equator. -- Declination compass
(Physics), a compass arranged for finding the declination
of the magnetic needle. -- Declination of the
compass or needle, the horizontal
angle which the magnetic needle makes with the true north-and-south
line.
