Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Descend?

\De*scend"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Descended}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Descending}.] [F. descendre, L. descendere, descensum; de- + scandere to climb. See {Scan}.] 1. To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, as by falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to plunge; to fall; to incline downward; -- the opposite of ascend. The rain descended, and the floods came. --Matt. vii. 25. We will here descend to matters of later date. --Fuller. 2. To enter mentally; to retire. [Poetic] [He] with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended. --Milton. 3. To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence; -- with on or upon. And on the suitors let thy wrath descend. --Pope. 4. To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or station; to lower or abase one's self; as, he descended from his high estate. 5. To pass from the more general or important to the particular or less important matters to be considered. 6. To come down, as from a source, original, or stock; to be derived; to proceed by generation or by transmission; to fall or pass by inheritance; as, the beggar may descend from a prince; a crown descends to the heir. 7. (Anat.) To move toward the south, or to the southward. 8. (Mus.) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
\De*scend"\, v. t. To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of; as, they descended the river in boats; to descend a ladder. But never tears his cheek descended. --Byron.