incline

Pluralinclines

Formsinclines, inclining, inclined

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A sloping surface or stretch of ground that rises or falls away from level.

   The road climbed a long incline before leveling off near the summit.

   Cyclists dreaded the final incline on the mountain route.

   Similarslope, hill, rise, gradient, grade

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To tend toward a particular action or belief, or to be moved toward a certain view, attitude, or direction.

   Most experts incline toward the view that the data was misread.

   He inclines to caution whenever money is involved.

   Similardispose

   Note

   In everyday use this sense lives mostly in the passive: be inclined to, followed by a verb (I'm inclined to give up smoking). The active form survives too (he inclines to believe anything), and it can take an object. Robert W. Chambers's The Younger Set (1907) has tastes that 'incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet.' Its synonym dispose works the same way: be disposed to.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To bend or move something out of its usual plane or direction, often away from the horizontal or vertical.

   Incline the panel slightly toward the sun to capture more light.

   He inclined the telescope upward to track the rising planet.

   Similartilt, angle, tip, slant, bend

   Note

   The root sense, and the one the word's history shows most plainly: Latin inclīnō, 'to tilt', is in- joined to clīnō, from the same Indo-European root that gives English lean. Here something is tilted on purpose, and the body is its most natural object. Mourners incline their heads behind a coffin, and a walker inclines his body against a gale. In both, the movement is deliberate and controlled rather than a fall.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To slope, rising or falling away from a level surface.

   The roof tiles incline just enough to let rain run off.

   Beyond the gate, the lawn inclines toward a small pond.

   Similarslope, slant, tilt

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The portal of a subway tunnel, where the tracks open at the surface.

   Crews repaired the tracks just inside the incline where the tunnel met daylight.

   Outbound trains leave the tunnel at the Elm Street Incline and run at street level from there.

   Similarportal

   Note

   A transit term usually met as part of a name, capitalized and preceded by the street the tunnel opens onto: the Pleasant Street Incline. The word fits because tracks leaving a tunnel have to climb to reach the surface. The portal is really a stretch of the ordinary slope built for trains, and the name for the slope became the name for the place.

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