declivity
The downward slope of a curve.
Noun
- The downward slope of a curve.
- The Declivity was ſo ſmall, that I walked near a mile before I got to the Shore, which I conjectur'd was about eight a-clock in the Evening. - 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself...
- 1780, Theodore Augustine Mann, A Treatise on Rivers and Canals, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Volume 69: For the Year 1779, Part II, 582, The velocity of flowing waters is very far from...
- […]whoever takes the trouble of observing how the water runs longitudinally in the ruts on a convex road, although the declivity down the sides be incomparably greater than in the direction which it is compelled to take...
- A downward bend in a path.
- An inward curve of the exoskeleton of an insect, such as between body segments; a segment of an insect's body where the exoskeleton curves inward.
- 1979, Entomology Circular, Issue 200, Part 366, Division of Plant Industry, page number not shown, Males of all species have more developed armature of the elytral declivity than females (Figs. S, 6, 8, 9, 11-14).
- Propodeum in profile with upper lobe of declivity elongate and narrow, subspiniform, almost as long as lower lobe. - 2000, Barry Bolton, “The Ant Tribe Dacetini”, in American Entomological Institute, volume 65, number...
Origin
1610s, from French déclivité, from Latin declivitatem, dēclīvitās, from dēclivis (“a sloping downward”), from de (“down”) + clīvus (“a slope”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱleywo-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to lean”) (English lean).