To move from a higher to a lower place; come or go down.
To slope, extend, or incline downward: "A rough path descended like a steep stair into the plain"(J.R.R. Tolkien).
To come from an ancestor or ancestry: He was descended from a pioneer family.
To come down from a source; derive: a tradition descending from colonial days.
To pass by inheritance: The house has descended through four generations.
To lower oneself; stoop: "She, the conqueror, had descended to the level of the conquered"(James Bryce).
To proceed or progress downward, as in rank, pitch, or scale: titles listed in descending order of importance; notes that descended to the lower register.
To arrive or attack in a sudden or an overwhelming manner: summer tourists descending on the seashore village.
v.
tr.
To move from a higher to a lower part of; go down.
To get down from: "People descended the minibus that shuttled guests to the nearby . . . beach"(Howard Kaplan).
To extend or proceed downward along: a road that descended the mountain in sharp curves.
[Middle English descenden, from Old French descendre, from Latin dēscendere : dē-, de- + scandere, to climb; see skand- in Indo-European roots.]
c.1300, from O.Fr. descendre, from L. descendere, from de- "down" + scandere "to climb," from PIE base *skand- "jump." Sense of "originate from" is c.1375. Descent is attested from c.1330; descendant "offspring" is from 1600.
move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way; "The temperature is going down"; "The barometer is falling"; "The curtain fell on the diva"; "Her hand went up and then fell again" [ant: arise, ascend]
2.
come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for example; "She was descended from an old Italian noble family"; "he comes from humble origins" [syn: derive]
3.
do something that one considers to be below one's dignity [syn: condescend]
4.
come as if by falling; "Night fell"; "Silence fell" [syn: fall]
As*cend"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ascended; p. pr. & vb. n. Ascending.] [L. ascendere; ad + scandere to climb, mount. See Scan.]1. To move upward; to mount; to go up; to rise; -- opposed to descend. Higher yet that star ascends. --Bowring. I ascend unto my father and your father. --John xx. 17. Note: Formerly used with up. The smoke of it ascended up to heaven. --Addison. 2. To rise, in a figurative sense; to proceed from an inferior to a superior degree, from mean to noble objects, from particulars to generals, from modern to ancient times, from one note to another more acute, etc.; as, our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity; to ascend to our first progenitor. Syn: To rise; mount; climb; scale; soar; tower.
Con`de*scend"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Condescended; p. pr. & vb. n. Condescending.] [F. condescendre, LL. condescendere, fr. L. con- + descendere. See Descend.]1. To stoop or descend; to let one's self down; to submit; to waive the privilege of rank or dignity; to accommodate one's self to an inferior. "Condescend to men of low estate." --Rom. xii. 16. Can they think me so broken, so debased With corporal servitude, that my mind ever Will condescend to such absurd commands? --Milton. Spain's mighty monarch, In gracious clemency, does condescend, On these conditions, to become your friend. --Dryden. Note: Often used ironically, implying an assumption of superiority. Those who thought they were honoring me by condescending to address a few words to me. --F. W. Robinson. 2. To consent. [Obs.] All parties willingly condescended heruento. --R. Carew. Syn: To yield; stoop; descend; deign; vouchsafe.
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