Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Decline
Declining to change themselves, even as sulphuric acid declines to be sweet milk, though you vote so until the end of the world.
—Thomas Carlyle
Declined, like a flower surcharged with dew.
—John Milton
Declined—like shadow in the dying of the day.
—Edgar Allan Poe