receding

Etymology

verb

1. present participle and gerund of recede

adj

1. Going or moving back or further away from a previous position; gradually diminishing.
2. That recedes.
   a receding hairline

noun

1. The action of something that recedes.
   the great overflowings and recedings of the waters 1829, Josiah Conder, The Modern Traveler, page 205
2. A recessed part.
   The sombre shadows, cast by those huge houses of which it is composed, and the streams of faint light cutting the darkness here and there, where the entrance to some fantastic alley pierces the sable mass of building—the strange projectings, recedings, and windings […] 1820, John Gibson Lockhart, Peter's Letters to His Kinsfolk, page 20