declared

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past tense and past participle of declare.

   The committee declared the results invalid after the audit.

   He declared bankruptcy when the business finally collapsed.

   Note

   One spelling serves both the past tense and the participle, so the surrounding words tell you which you have. The board declared stands alone, while was declared and has declared lean on an auxiliary. Several uses of declare take no object at all: in cricket a captain has declared, and on election night a constituency declares its result. So the participle is not always passive.

2. 2
   adjective

   Openly stated or admitted, rather than kept hidden or private.

   As a declared enemy of the regime, he lived under constant surveillance.

   Their declared intention was to expand into three new markets within a year.

   Similaravowed, professed, open, stated, acknowledged

   Oppositesecret, covert, hidden, undeclared

   Note

   Placed before a noun, it marks a stance someone has owned in public: a declared enemy, a declared intention. It does not grade, since nobody is more declared than someone else, so very and more sit badly with it. After a verb the word usually turns back into the past participle. In the winner was declared, something was announced rather than avowed.

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