Decline
Return
Return verb - To go back to a previous and usually lower state or level.
Usage example: vowed to do anything to keep the recovering alcoholic from returning to his dissolute ways
Decline is a synonym for return in expire topic. Sometimes you can use "Decline" instead the word "Return" as a verb or a noun, if it concerns topics such as slipping back.
Mutual synonyms
How words are described
| long | long decline | long return |
| brief | brief decline | brief return |
| original | original decline | original return |
| real | real decline | real return |
| Other adjectives: great, serious, slight, bad, shocking, gradual, permanent, dramatic, possible, apparent, inevitable, subsequent, eventual, recent, sudden. | ||
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
- The Barbara Gordon return was made even worse in the noticeable decline of quality, and conscious but unsuccessful copying of several elements of Batgirl 2009.
Source: Broken Base / Comic Books -
NOAH's decline and Muto's departure saw an attempted return to form.
Source: Genre Shift -
In the original Japanese, they want her to become their bride and produce offspring that will help them fight off a "new god", and when she and her friends... decline, they decide to return to their "former god" and bide their time.
Source: Anime / Digimon Adventure 02
Cite this Source
Return and Decline. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/decline/return
Decline & Return. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/decline/return>.
Return or Decline. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/decline/return.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "decline" and "return" have occurred on timeline