declivitous

English

Alternative forms

• declivous

Etymology

Latin declivus (“sloping down”), from de- (“down from”) + clivus (“slope”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈklɪ.vɪ.təs/

Adjective

declivitous (comparative more declivitous, superlative most declivitous)

1. Descending gradually; sloping; downhill.
   • 1855, Pliny (the Elder.), The Natural History of Pliny - Volume 3, page 501:

     Where the ground is declivitous, it is requisite that the hole should be deeper, in addition to which it should be artificially elevated on the edge of the lower side.

   • 1859, Clements R. Markham, “On the Introduction of the Cinchona Plant into India”, in Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay, page 352:

     The forest covers a declivitous slope, at an elevation of about 5,000 feet, and extends to the verge of the steep descent into the table-land of Wynaad.

   • 1990, Bert Hölldobler, ‎Edward O. Wilson, The Ants, page 67:

     Hypostomal tooth-like projection present adjacent to the ventral surface of mandibular insertions; declivitous face of propodeum strongly concave in profile, and meeting the basal face to form a conspicuous, narrow convexity or sharp angle projecting rear-ward; scale of petiole erect.

2. At lower levels; lowly.
   • 1995, Samuel Clark, State and Status, page 149:

     In France, Savoy, and the Southern Low Countries the structure of lordship was declivitous during the eleventh , twelfth , and thirteenth centuries; in other words, seigneurial rights and obligations were greater at lower levels of the hierarchy .

   • 2011, Kyle Lance Proudfoot, The Black Dungeon Doorway, page 68:

     I, for one, and certainly Aera, do not feel declivitous.

   • 2016, Mariano Scaglione, ‎Ulrich Linsenmaier, ‎Gerd Schueller, Emergency Radiology of the Chest and Cardiovascular System:

     The initial recesses of the pleural cavity filled with blood effusion are declivitous; they can vary according to the decubitus, whereas, with the progressive filling of the pleural cavity, blood is invariably collected in the lateral pleural spaces over the apex of the lung (apical cap): they are very large pleural effusions, in the order of about 800-1200 cc.