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Definition
a downward slope or bend; or something with such a slope- One Heart Breaking "There is a passion for declivity in this world," Tennessee Williams has one of his characters say in Comino Real. The ultimate declivity is death. But the pain that accompanies this descent in Williams' plays is a sense of what is lost during the journey—honor, gentleness, tenderness, brotherhood, the ability to love, or even communicate with, another human being.One Heart Breaking, Time Magazine, 1/19/70 -- http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878685,00.html (retrieved 08/15/09)
- Physical declivity takes her from a cane to a walker to a wheelchair.
- Leaning far back in their saddles, they slid the horses down a steep declivity, through big spruce woods, to an ancient and all but obliterated trail.Jack London -- The Valley of the Moon
- But Jack was pointing to the high declivities that led down from the mountain to the flatter part of the island.William Golding -- Lord of the Flies
- Presently, when Sandy slid from the horse, motioned me to stop, and went creeping stealthily, with her head bent nearly to her knees, toward a row of bushes that bordered a declivity,Mark Twain -- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- After winding along the side of the mountain, the road, on reaching the gentle declivity which lay at the base of the hill, turned at a right angle to its former course, and shot down an inclined plane, directly into the village of Templeton.James Fenimore Cooper -- The Pioneers
- A quarter of a mile below camp the Indian led down a declivity into the bottom of the narrow gorge, where the stream ran.Zane Grey -- The Rainbow Trail
- There was no sign of the car, although once when the horses slowed to pick their way down a steep declivity, I thought I heard the sound of a motor.Louis L'Amour -- The Broken Gun
- She glanced over her shoulder; Passmore had got Gray to the top of the declivity, and was attempting to help him down.Grace MacGowan Cooke -- The Power and the Glory
- Our columns ought to have begun to appear on an open declivity to his right.Leo Tolstoy -- War and Peace
- On the declivity of the Atlantic basin the first streams, branches of the North Platte River, already appeared.Jules Verne -- Around the World in 80 Days
- He went over the brim of the declivity and began to climb down.D.H. Lawrence -- Sons and Lovers
- Who knows what pleasant surprises await us amid their steep declivities?Johann Wyss -- The Swiss Family Robinson
- Besides we knew that, as soon as the declivity ceased to be so abrupt, the stream must resume its peaceful course.Jules Verne -- A Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Venters ran down the declivity to enter a zone of light shade streaked with sunshine.Zane Grey -- Riders of the Purple Sage
- And they kept it up while she was gaining her ambush and getting her glimpse over the declivity; and also while I was creeping to her side on my knees.Mark Twain -- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- He had rolled down a declivity of twelve or fifteen feet.Alexandre Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo
- He now paused at the top of a crooked and gentle declivity, and obtained his first near view of the city.Thomas Hardy -- Jude the Obscure
- Recovering her reserve, she sat without replying, and thus they reached the summit of another declivity.Thomas Hardy -- Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- George Naab was leading a team down a rocky declivity to a pool of yellow water.Zane Grey -- The Heritage of the Desert
declivities = downward slopes
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