Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To deviate from the horizontal or vertical; slant.
- v. To be disposed to a certain preference, opinion, or course of action.
- v. To lower or bend the head or body, as in a nod or bow.
- v. To cause to lean, slant, or slope.
- v. To influence to have a certain tendency; dispose: Recent events incline us to distrust all politicians.
- v. To bend or lower in a nod or bow: inclined her head in acquiescence.
- n. An inclined surface; a slope or gradient.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To bend down; lean; turn obliquely from or toward a given direction or position; deviate from a line or course; tend: as, the column inclines from the perpendicular.
- To bow; bend the head or the body, especially as a mark of courtesy or respect.
- To have a mental bent or tendency; be disposed; tend, as toward an opinion, a course of action, etc.
- To tend, in a physical sense; approximate.
- In marching, to gain ground to the flank, as well as to the front.
- To bend down; cause to lean; give a leaning to; cause to deviate from or toward a given line, position, or direction; direct.
- To bend (the body), as in an act of reverence or civility; cause to stoop or bow.
- To give a tendency or propension to; turn; dispose.
- n. An inclination; a bow.
- n. An inclined plane; an ascent or a descent, as in a road or a railway;a slope.
- n. A shaft or mine-opening having considerable inclination. The words shaft, incline, and level express all possible conditions of a mine-opening in respect to position with reference to the horizontal plane. If the incline is worked “to the rise,” the material mined is transported downward by some self-acting arrangement; if “to the deep,” it is raised by a steam or other engine.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To bend or move (something) out of a given plane or direction, often the horizontal or vertical.
- v. intransitive To slope.
- v. To tend to do or believe something, or move or be moved in a certain direction, away from a point of view, attitude, etc.
- n. A slope.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To deviate from a line, direction, or course, toward an object; to lean; to tend
- v. Fig.: To lean or tend, in an intellectual or moral sense; to favor an opinion, a course of conduct, or a person; to have a propensity or inclination; to be disposed.
- v. To bow; to incline the head.
- v. To cause to deviate from a line, position, or direction; to give a leaning, bend, or slope to
- v. To impart a tendency or propensity to, as to the will or affections; to turn; to dispose; to influence.
- v. To bend; to cause to stoop or bow.
- n. An inclined plane; an ascent or descent; a grade or gradient; a slope.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make receptive or willing towards an action or attitude or belief
- v. be at an angle
- v. bend or turn (one's ear) towards a speaker in order to listen well
- n. an elevated geological formation
- v. have a tendency or disposition to do or be something; be inclined
- v. lower or bend (the head or upper body), as in a nod or bow
- v. feel favorably disposed or willing
- n. an inclined surface connecting two levels
Etymologies
- From Old French encliner (modern incliner), from Latin inclīnō ("incline, tilt"), from in- + clīnō (c.f. -cline), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English enclinen, from Old French encliner, from Latin inclīnāre : in-, into, toward; see in-2 + -clīnāre, to lean; see klei- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The adminstration says the "incline is not as steep", that's because employment and the economy are on the DECLINE.”
“The steep incline from the main part of campus toward the impressive new athletic complex and the sea reminds me of Southern California.”
“In any other country in the world such perilous diversions would be illegal, and punishable by "fine or imprisonment," and the police would interfere to prevent them; but here nobody thinks of preventing anybody from doing anything, and in Boston a street, in one of the most populous parts of the city, being a steep incline, is entirely given up to the boys and their sledding.”
“Working on an incline is the key to these simple exercises.”
The Huffington Post: Big Girls, Small Kitchen: The 7 Best Gym-Free Workout Routines
“It was not at a great elevation, but the incline was a gradual one, and it was hoped that from the elevated portion a better glimpse could be obtained than the tree afforded.”
“The incline was a glare of ice, and Jack's first attempt sent him sliding back with considerable force to the cavern floor.”
Through the Air to the North Pole or The Wonderful Cruise of the Electric Monarch
“At the top of the grade, he noticed, was a donkey engine which operated the cable that drew the car up from the dock, and at the top of the incline was a huge pile of material.”
“The form descending the incline was a woman's, yet so entirely was his mind blinded to the idea of his wife's following him that even when she came nearer he did not recognize her under the totally changed attire in which he now beheld her.”
“The incline was the same down which d'Urberville had driven with her so wildly on that day in June.”
“The incline was the same down which d'Urberville had driven her so wildly on that day in June.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘incline’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, approbation, orator, peroration, Cicero, eloquence, elocution, rhetoric, premeditate, plead, Isocrates and 264 more...
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Lines
lines, line, recline, line item, incline, Line Islands, acetylcholine, aclinic line, linen, Linear A, line storm, landline and 13 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, I
irenic, inimical, ignotism, infrangible, internecine, illumine, ingot, imposter, iconoclast, indefeasible, indefatigable, impingement and 184 more...
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More
aggrandize, augment, increase, improve, increment, evolve, incline, rise, expand
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Landscape
riparian, littoral, talus, fen, ambit, savanna, remnant prairie, shortgrass prairie, tallgrass prairie, marsh, swamp, marshy and 199 more...
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Lay of the Land
all kinds of scapes
steppe, veld, veldt, campo, llano, taiga, krummholz, elfinwood, tundra, sward, lea, heath and 197 more...
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barfi
turpentine, cognate, connotation, denotation, bias, unflinching, emptive, mob, amnesty, modestly, spear, incline and 150 more...
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clin-, -clinal, -cline
of, denoting, or relating to a slope
incline, clinometer, geosyncline, declination, anticlinal, proclinate, matroclinic, clinodiagonal
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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lines
line-know-of-them
guy line, chorus line, party line, front line, foul line, life line, love line, bottom line, red line, credit line, by line, dotted line and 106 more...
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Lesson 12
abduct, abode, abyss, arbitrate, attribute, capricious, compromise, devout, distraught, enlighten, incline, intervene and 3 more...
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vocab 12
abduct, abode, abyss, arbitrate, attribute, capricious, compromise, devout, distraught, enlighten, incline, intervene and 3 more...
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Lesson 12
abduct, abode, abyss, arbitrate, attribute, capricious, compromise, devout, distraught, enlighten, incline, intervene and 3 more...
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vocab 12
abduct, abode, abyss, arbitrate, attribute, capricious, compromise, devout, distraught, enlighten, incline, intervene and 3 more...
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