decline — OAT

decline

verb

1 she declined all invitations | he offered me a cigarette but I declined:

turn down, reject, brush aside, refuse, rebuff, spurn, disdain, look down one's nose at, repulse, repudiate, dismiss, forgo, deny oneself, pass up, refuse to take advantage of, turn one's back on;

abstain (from), say no to, shake one's head, send one's regrets;

informal give the thumbs down (to), give the red light (to), give something a miss, give someone the brush-off;

British, informal knock back;

Australian, informal snout.

▷antonyms accept.

2 the number of small local traders has declined:

decrease, reduce, get smaller, grow smaller, lessen, get less, diminish, wane, dwindle, contract, shrink, fall off, taper off, tail off, peter out;

drop, fall, go down, sink, slump, plummet, plunge, fall off a cliff;

informal nosedive, take a nosedive, take a header, go into a tailspin, crash.

▷antonyms increase.

3 standards of craftsmanship steadily declined:

deteriorate, degenerate, decay, crumble, collapse, fail, fall, sink, slump, slip, slide, go downhill, worsen, get worse, go to rack and ruin, stagnate, atrophy, wither, weaken, fade, fade away, wane, ebb;

be abandoned, be neglected, be disregarded, be forgotten;

informal go to pot, go to the dogs, hit the skids, go down the toilet, go down the tubes;

Australian, New Zealand, informal go to the pack;

rare retrograde.

▷antonyms flourish.

noun

1 the company suffered a decline in profits:

reduction, decrease, downturn, downswing, lowering, devaluation, depreciation, lessening, diminishing, diminution, slackening, waning, dwindling, fading, ebb, falling off, abatement, drop, slump, plunge, tumble;

North American downtick;

informal nosedive, crash, letup.

▷antonyms increase.

2 there is a link between pollution and forest decline:

deterioration, degeneration, degradation, shrinkage, shrinking, withering, atrophy, weakening, enfeeblement, fall, failure, death, decay, decaying;

dated decadence;

rare devolution.

□ in decline

the prosperity of the Mediterranean world was in decline:

waning, declining, on the decline, decaying, crumbling, collapsing, atrophying, failing, disappearing, dying, moribund, past its prime, obsolescent;

informal on its last legs, on the way out.

choose the right word	decline, refuse, reject, spurn
See refuse.