descend Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way
    go down; come down; fall.
    • The temperature is going down
    • The barometer is falling
    • The curtain fell on the diva
    • Her hand went up and then fell again
  2. verb come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for example
    derive; come.
    • She was descended from an old Italian noble family
    • he comes from humble origins
  3. verb do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
    deign; condescend.
  4. verb come as if by falling
    settle; fall.
    • Night fell
    • Silence fell

WordNet

De*scend" intransitive verb
Etymology
F. descendre, L. descendere, descensum; de- + scandere to climb. See Scan.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Descended; present participle & verbal noun Descending
Definitions
  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" transitive verb
Definitions
  1. 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.

Webster 1913