Descended

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
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              The rain descended, and the floods came. --Matt.
                                                    vii. 25.
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              We will here descend to matters of later date.
                                                    --Fuller.
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     2. To enter mentally; to retire. [Poetic]
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              [He] with holiest meditations fed,
              Into himself descended.               --Milton.
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     3. To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage
        ground; to come suddenly and with violence; -- with on or
        upon.
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              And on the suitors let thy wrath descend. --Pope.
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     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.
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     5. To pass from the more general or important to the
        particular or less important matters to be considered.
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     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.
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     7. (Anat.) To move toward the south, or to the southward.
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     8. (Mus.) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower
        tone.
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