incline

• encline (obsolete)

From Middle English enclinen, from Old French encliner (modern incliner), from Latin inclīnō (“incline, tilt”), from in- + clīnō (compare -cline), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean).

• (verb) enPR: ĭnklīn', IPA^(key): /ɪnˈklaɪn/

  • Audio (US):

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  • Rhymes: -aɪn
• (noun) enPR: ĭn'klīn, IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.klaɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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  • Rhymes: -ɪnklaɪn

incline (third-person singular simple present inclines, present participle inclining, simple past and past participle inclined)

1. (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.

2. (intransitive) To slope.

   Over the centuries the wind made the walls of the farmhouse incline.

3. (chiefly intransitive, chiefly passive voice) 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 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "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; […]."

   • 1966, 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:

     The terp farmer made use of the plough, as is shown by the discovery of three ploughshares and four coulters. […] Those who inclined to the stock-breeding theory based their arguments on the absence of ploughs, […].

• inclination

incline (plural inclines)

1. A slope.

   To reach the building, we had to climb a steep incline.

2. A portal of a subway tunnel.

   the Pleasant Street Incline

• climate
• cline
• decline
• recline

• “incline”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “incline”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “incline”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• -nicline

• Audio:

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incline

1. inflection of incliner:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

incline

1. inflection of inclinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /inˈkli.ne/
• Rhymes: -ine
• Hyphenation: in‧clì‧ne

incline (plural inclini)

1. inclined, prone

   Synonyms: facile, propenso

incline

1. inflection of inclinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

incline

1. inflection of inclinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative