Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A downward slope, as of a hill.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A downward slope.
- noun In entomology, a part gently sloping away from the general plane of a surface.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Deviation from a horizontal line; gradual descent of surface; inclination downward; slope; -- opposed to
acclivity , or ascent; the same slope, considered asdescending , being adeclivity , which, considered asascending , is anacclivity . - noun A descending surface; a sloping place.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geomorphology the
downward slope of ahill - noun a downward
bend in apath
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a downward slope or bend
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Sufetula was built one hundred and fifty miles to the south of Carthage: a gentle declivity is watered by a running stream, and shaded by a grove of juniper-trees; and, in the ruins of a triumpha arch, a portico, and three temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity may yet admire the magnificence of the Romans.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206
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At the bottom of the declivity was a pond of water bubbling and steaming.
The Dodge Club or, Italy in MDCCCLIX James De Mille
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On a shelf or cup of the declivity was a little clump of vegetation, and in the midst of it welled up a thin stream of water.
The Golden Fleece 1896
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The declivity is the greatest of the whole river with the exception of the First Granite Gorge of the Grand
The Romance of the Colorado River Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh 1894
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"First imagine to yourself a superb position, a steep mountain, bristling with rocks, furrowed with ravines and precipices; upon the declivity is the castle.
English Villages 1892
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But again, after the car rested a minute, the light, dry earth began to crack and crumble away from under the tires, rolling in a miniature avalanche down the steep declivity into the water.
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A few hundred yards from the trail was a steep and narrow declivity like something out of a Tony Hillerman story.
Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011
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"The whole is a sweet Spot of Earth, not a Span hardly uncultivated with Sugar-Canes; all sides bend with an easy declivity to the Sea, and is ever green," was how one visitor described the island in the 1730s.
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Five years in narrow walls had unfitted me for the enormous declivity of the stairway, for the vastitude of the prison yard.
Chapter 22 2010
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Three sides were thus defended, the steep declivity at the rear precluding attack from that direction.
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