declined

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of decline.

   He politely declined the offer of a second helping.

   Stock prices declined steadily throughout the afternoon session.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here: she declined is the simple past, and she has declined is the perfect. Which constructions work depends on the meaning. In the refusing sense the verb takes an object, so the passive is natural (the invitation was declined). In the falling or weakening sense it takes none, so prices declined or have declined, but no passive is possible. The botanical adjective shares the spelling but not the grammar.

2. 2
   adjective

   Pointing in an oblique direction, usually angled downward from the point where it attaches.

   Like the downward-angled spokes of a half-closed umbrella.

   Botanists noted the declined branches curving away from the main stem.

   The shrub's declined leaves slanted obliquely toward the ground.

   Similardrooping, pendulous

   Oppositeascending, erect

   Note

   A shape word from descriptive botany. It records how a part is set on the plant, not something that has happened to it. The distinction matters because the past tense looks identical: the branches declined means they sank, while declined branches simply grow at a slant. As a true adjective it can be graded, so one shoot can be more declined than another and the lowest the most declined.

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