descend
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /dɪˈsɛnd/
Verb

descend (descends, present participle descending; past and past participle descended)

  1. (intransitive) To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, for example by falling, flowing, walking, climbing etc.
    • 2002, John Griesemer, No One Thinks of Greenland: A Novel
      Rudy felt a gust of fear rise in his chest, and he looked again in the mirror, but the hangar and stable were now beyond the rise, out of sight, he was descending so fast.
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge: From the Conquest to the Year 1634
    We will here descend to matters of later date.
    • 1611, King James Version, Matthew vii. 25.
    The rain descended, and the floods came.
  2. (intransitive, poetic) To enter mentally; to retire.
    • 1671, John Milton, “Book the Second”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398 ↗:
      [He] with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended.
  3. (intransitive, with on or upon) To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
    • 2013, Deltrice Alfred Grossmith, Arctic Warriors: A Personal Account of Convoy PQ18
      more aircraft descending on us than had done during previous visits from the snoopers in their usual ones and twos.
    • 1726, Alexander Pope, Odyssey
    And on the suitors let thy wrath descend.
  4. (intransitive) To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or rank; to lower or abase oneself
    he descended from his high estate
  5. (intransitive) To pass from the more general or important to the specific or less important matters to be considered.
  6. (intransitive) To come down, as from a source, original, or stock
  7. to be derived (from)
  8. to proceed by generation or by transmission; to happen by inheritance.
    The beggar may descend from a prince.
    A crown descends to the heir.
  9. (intransitive, astronomy) To move toward the south, or to the southward.
  10. (intransitive, music) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
  11. (transitive) To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of
    they descended the river in boats; to descend a ladder
    • 1816, Lord Byron, Parisina
      But never tear his cheek descended.
Synonyms Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations
  • Russian: обру́шиваться
Translations
  • Russian: происходи́ть
  • Spanish: descender
Translations Translations


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary