(verb) : dē-clīno, āvi, ātum, 1, and n. CLINO = κλίνω, orig.
* To bend from the straight path; to turn aside or away (freq. and class.).
* Lit.
* Act.: ego modo declinavi paullum me extra viam,Plaut. Aul. 4, 8, 11; cf.: sese rectā regione viai,Lucr. 2, 250; and: se a terris omnia numina, Poët. ap. Suet. Aug. 70: lumina, Catull. 64, 91: agmen,Liv. 1, 28; 36, 23: nares in alteram partem,Cels. 8, 5.—Poet. of the eyes, to bend down, i. e. to lower, close them in sleep: nec dulci declinat lumina somno, * Verg. A. 4, 185.
* Trop.
* In gen.
* Act., to turn aside: neque (mulierem) declinatam quicquam ab aliarum ingenio ullam reperias, who has departed, deviated, * Ter. Hec. 2, 1, 3; cf.: quaedam verborum flgurae paulum figuris sententiarum declinantur,Quint. 9, 3, 88; id. 10, 3, 33: neque spe, neque metu declinatus animus,id. 12, 1, 16: Cato literas Graecas aetate jam declinata didicit,in the decline of life,id. 12, 11, 23.
* In partic. grammat. t. t., to vary, inflect a part of speech.
* In the older grammarians, of every kind of inflection (declension, conjugation, comparison, derivation, etc.), Varr. L. L. 8, § 2 sq.; 10, § 11 sq.; cf. also Quint. 1, 4, 22; 1, 5, 63 al.
* Transf., with an object denoting that from which one turns aside; to avoid, to shun (classical, most freq. in Cic.); nec satis recte (oratio) declinat impetum, nisi etiam in cedendo quid deceat intellegit,Cic. Or. 68, 228; cf., corresp. with vitare,id. Att. 8, 11, D. fin.; and: ictum,Liv. 42, 63, 4: urbem,Cic. Planc. 41: laqueos judicii,id. Mil. 15, 40: appetuntur quae secundum naturam sunt, declinantur contraria,id. N. D. 3, 13, 33: vitia,id. Off. 1, 6, 19: ea quae nocitura videantur,id. ib. 1, 4; cf. Tac. A. 13, 4: invidiam,id. H. 4, 41 fin.; Suet. Caes. 4: impudicitiam uxoris,Tac. A. 6, 51: oppida ut busta,Amm. 16, 2, 12.

s. TLL