Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Descent?

\De*scent"\, n. [F. descente, fr. descendre; like vente, from vendre. See {Descend}.] 1. The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower. 2. Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; -- often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy. The United Provinces . . . ordered public prayer to God, when they feared that the French and English fleets would make a descent upon their coasts. --Jortin. 3. Progress downward, as in station, virtue, as in station, virtue, and the like, from a higher to a lower state, from a higher to a lower state, from the more to the less important, from the better to the worse, etc. 2. Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction. --Dryden. 5. (Law) Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity. --Abbott. 6. Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent. 7. That which is descended; descendants; issue. If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain woe. --Milton. 8. A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation. No man living is a thousand descents removed from Adam himself. --Hooker. 9. Lowest place; extreme downward place. [R.] And from the extremest upward of thy head, To the descent and dust below thy foot. --Shak. 10. (Mus.) A passing from a higher to a lower tone. Syn: Declivity; slope; degradation; extraction; lineage; assault; invasion; attack.