Lewis & Short

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dēclīnātĭo, ōnis, f. [declino], a bending from a thing, a bending aside; an oblique inclination or direction (good prose).

  1. I. Lit.: lanceam exigua corporis declinatione vitare, Curt. 9, 7 fin.; cf.: quot ego tuas petitiones parva quadam declinatione effugi, Cic. Cat. 1, 6, 15: declinare dixit (Epicurus) atomum perpaulum, et ipsa declinatio ad libidinem fingitur, etc., id. Fin. 1, 6, 19; so of the oblique motion of atoms, id. Fat. 10, 22; 22, 47.
    1. B. Like the Gr. κλίμα, the supposed slope of the earth towards the poles, a region of the earth or sky, a climate: declinatio mundi, Col. 1 prooem. § 22; so, mundi, id. 3, 1, 3; cf.: positio caeli et declinatio, id. 1, 6, 18; so correspond. with regio caeli, Col. 4, 24, 2; cf. also caeli, the altitude of the pole, Vitr. 9, 7, 1.
  2. II. Trop.
    1. A. In gen., a turning away from any thing; an avoiding, avoidance: ut bona natura appetimus, sic a malis natura declinamus; quae declinatio, si cum ratione fiet, cautio appelletur, Cic. Tusc. 4, 6, 13; cf. so opp. appetitio, id. N. D. 3, 13, 33; and in plur. Gell. 14, 1, 23: laboris, periculi, Cic. Clu. 53 fin.
    2. B. t. t.
      1. 1. Of rhetor. lang., a short digression: declinatio brevis a proposito, non ut superior illa digressio, Cic. de Or. 3, 53 fin.; id. Part. 15; cf. Quint. 9, 1, 32 and 34.
      2. 2. Of gramm. lang.: variation, inflection.
          1. (α) In the older grammarians, every change of form which a word undergoes; as declension, strictly so called, conjugation, comparison, derivation, etc., Varr. L. L. 8, § 2 sq.; 10, § 11 sq.; Cic. de Or. 3, 54; cf. also of declension in its stricter sense, Quint. 1, 4, 29; 1, 5, 63; of conjugation, id. 1, 4, 13; of derivation, id. 8, 3, 32; 2, 15, 4.
          2. (β) Among the later grammarians, of declension, properly so called, as distinguished from conjugatio, comparatio, derivatio, etc. So, Donatus: in declinatione compositivorum nominum, p. 174 P. (p. 13 Lind.).