slope

Forms

1.A surface that either inclines or declines in a regular manner from the perspective of an observer.
- She looked down a slope, needing to squint for the sunlight, onto a vast sprawl of houses which had grown up all together, like a well-tended crop, from the dull brown earth...
2.An area of ground that tends evenly upward or downward.
- I had to climb a small slope to get to the site.
3.The degree to which a surface tends upward or downward.
- The road has a very sharp downward slope at that point.
4.The ratio of the vertical and horizontal distances between two points lying on the line.

1.To tend steadily upward or downward.
- The road slopes sharply down at that point.
- St. Lawrence Station is very prettily situated, high cliffs on the left, and the lush vegetation of the Undercliff sloping down to the sea on the right.
- If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough.
2.To try to move surreptitiously.(colloquial)
- I sloped in through the back door, hoping my boss wouldn't see me.
- She watched him disappear out of sight, before sloping back to her room.
3.To form with a slope; to give an oblique or slanting direction to; to incline or slant.
4.To hold a rifle at a slope with forearm perpendicular to the body in front holding the butt, the rifle resting on the shoulder.
- The order was given to "slope arms".