Descending

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

  Descending \De*scend"ing\, a.
     Of or pertaining to descent; moving downwards.
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     {Descending constellations} or {Descending signs} (Astron.),
        those through which the planets descent toward the south.
        
  
     {Descending node} (Astron.), that point in a planet's orbit
        where it intersects the ecliptic in passing southward.
  
     {Descending series} (Math.), a series in which each term is
        numerically smaller than the preceding one; also, a series
        arranged according to descending powers of a quantity.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  descending
       adj : coming down or downward [syn: {descending(a)}] [ant: {ascending(a)}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  64 Moby Thesaurus words for "descending":
     ascending, axial, back, back-flowing, backward, collapsing,
     deciduous, declined, declining, declivate, declivitous, declivous,
     decurrent, descendant, dipping, down, down-reaching, down-trending,
     downcoming, downfalling, downgoing, downgrade, downhill,
     downsinking, downward, drifting, drooping, dropping, falling,
     flowing, fluent, flying, going, gyrational, gyratory, mounting,
     on the descendant, on the downgrade, passing, plummeting, plunging,
     progressive, reflowing, refluent, regressive, retrogressive,
     rising, rotary, rotational, rotatory, running, rushing, sagging,
     setting, sideward, sinking, soaring, streaming, submerging,
     subsiding, tottering, tumbledown, up-trending, upward