incline
See also: incliné
English
Alternative forms
- encline (obsolete)
Etymology
From Old French encliner (modern incliner), from Latin inclīnō (“incline, tilt”), from in- + clīnō (compare -cline), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean).
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -aɪn
Audio (US) (file) - (verb) enPR: ĭnklīn', IPA(key): /ɪnˈklaɪn/
- (noun) enPR: ĭn'klīn, IPA(key): /ˈɪn.klaɪn/
Verb
incline (third-person singular simple present inclines, present participle inclining, simple past and past participle inclined)
- (transitive) To bend or move (something) out of a given plane or direction, often the horizontal or vertical.
- He had to incline his body against the gusts to avoid being blown down in the storm.
- The people following the coffin inclined their heads in grief.
- (intransitive) To slope.
- Over the centuries the wind made the walls of the farmhouse incline.
- (chiefly intransitive, chiefly passive) To tend to do or believe something, or move or be moved in a certain direction, away from a point of view, attitude, etc.
- He inclines to believe anything he reads in the newspapers.
- I'm inclined to give up smoking after hearing of the risks to my health.
- 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:
- "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."
- (Can we date this quote?), J. M. G. van der Poel, "Agriculture in Pre- and Protohistoric Times", in the Acta Historiae Neerlandica published by the Netherlands Committee of Historical Sciences, p.170:
Related terms
Translations
bend (something) out of a given plane or direction
|
slope
Translations
slope
Further reading
- incline in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- incline in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- incline at OneLook Dictionary Search
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