Refuse vs. Decline — What's the Difference?

To indicate unwillingness to do, accept, give, or allow

(typically of something regarded as good) become smaller, fewer, or less; decrease

To indicate unwillingness (to do something)

Politely refuse (an invitation or offer)

To decline to jump (an obstacle). Used of a horse.

(especially of the sun) move downwards

To decline to do, accept, give, or allow something.

(in the grammar of Latin, Greek, and certain other languages) state the forms of (a noun, pronoun, or adjective) corresponding to case, number, and gender.

Items or material discarded or rejected as useless or worthless; trash or rubbish.

A gradual and continuous loss of strength, numbers, quality, or value

Discarded, rejected.

To express polite refusal

Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage.

To slope downward; descend

(obsolete) refusal

To bend downward; droop

(transitive) To decline (a request or demand).

To degrade or lower oneself; stoop

(intransitive) To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.

To deteriorate gradually; fail

(military) To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the centre, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular alignment when troops are about to engage the enemy.

To sink, as the setting sun.

To disown.

To draw to a gradual close

To melt again.

To refuse politely

To deny, as a request, demand, invitation, or command; to decline to do or grant.

Downward movement, fall.en

To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the center, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular aligment when troops ar about to engage the enemy; as, to refuse the right wing while the left wing attacks.

A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.en

To decline to accept; to reject; to deny the request or petition of; as, to refuse a suitor.

A weakening.en

To disown.

A reduction or diminution of activity.

To deny compliance; not to comply.

The act of declining or refusing something.

Refusal.

(intransitive) To move downwards, to fall, to drop.

That which is refused or rejected as useless; waste or worthless matter.

(intransitive) To become weaker or worse.

Refused; rejected; hence; left as unworthy of acceptance; of no value; worthless.

(transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.

Food that is discarded (as from a kitchen)

(transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.

Show unwillingness towards;

To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.

Refuse to accept;

(transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.

Elude, especially in a baffling way;

To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like.

Refuse to let have;

To recite all the different declined forms of (a word).

Resist immunologically the introduction of some foreign tissue or organ;

(by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.

Refuse entrance or membership;

To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.

To bend, or lean downward; to take a downward direction; to bend over or hang down, as from weakness, weariness, despondency, etc.; to condescend.

To tend or draw towards a close, decay, or extinction; to tend to a less perfect state; to become diminished or impaired; to fail; to sink; to diminish; to lessen; as, the day declines; virtue declines; religion declines; business declines.

To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw; as, a line that declines from straightness; conduct that declines from sound morals.

To turn away; to shun; to refuse; - the opposite of accept or consent; as, he declined, upon principle.

To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.

To cause to decrease or diminish.

To put or turn aside; to turn off or away from; to refuse to undertake or comply with; reject; to shun; to avoid; as, to decline an offer; to decline a contest; he declined any participation with them.

To inflect, or rehearse in order the changes of grammatical form of; as, to decline a noun or an adjective.

To run through from first to last; to repeat like a schoolboy declining a noun.

A falling off; a tendency to a worse state; diminution or decay; deterioration; also, the period when a thing is tending toward extinction or a less perfect state; as, the decline of life; the decline of strength; the decline of virtue and religion.

That period of a disorder or paroxysm when the symptoms begin to abate in violence; as, the decline of a fever.

A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline.

Change toward something smaller or lower

A condition inferior to an earlier condition; a gradual falling off from a better state

A gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current

A downward slope or bend

Grow worse;

Refuse to accept;

Show unwillingness towards;

Grow smaller;

Go down;

Go down in value;

Inflect for number, gender, case, etc.,