abatement vs decline

abatement

noun
  • The act of abating, or the state of being abated; a lessening, diminution, or reduction; a moderation; removal or putting an end to; the suppression. 

  • The reduction of the proceeds of a will, when the debts have not yet been satisfied; the reduction of taxes due. 

  • The action of a person that abates, or without proper authority enters a residence after the death of the owner and before the heir takes possession. 

  • An amount abated; that which is taken away by way of reduction; deduction; decrease; a rebate or discount allowed; in particular from a tax. 

  • Waste of stuff in preparing to size. 

  • A mark of dishonor on an escutcheon; any figure added to the coat of arms tending to lower the dignity or station of the bearer. 

decline

noun
  • A reduction or diminution of activity. 

  • A weakening. 

  • Downward movement, fall. 

  • The act of declining or refusing something. 

  • A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road. 

verb
  • To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain. 

  • To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun. 

  • To cause to decrease or diminish. 

  • To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall. 

  • To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw. 

  • To move downwards, to fall, to drop. 

  • To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like. 

  • To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play. 

  • To become weaker or worse. 

  • To recite all the different declined forms of (a word). 

How often have the words abatement and decline occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )