scend

American  

[send] / sɛnd /

Or send

verb (used without object)

1. to heave in a swell.

2. to lurch forward from the motion of a heavy sea.

---

noun

1. the heaving motion of a vessel.

2. the forward impulse imparted by the motion of a sea against a vessel.

scend British  

/ sɛnd /

verb

1. (of a vessel) to surge upwards in a heavy sea

---

noun

1. the upward heaving of a vessel pitching

2. the forward lift given a vessel by the sea

Etymology

Origin of scend

1615–25; send ²; perhaps aphetic variant of ascend, descend

Example Sentences

Now, the greatest danger was the leads, those black stretches of open water and paper-thin ice; every time they encountered one, panic de­scended.

From New York Times

Blackhawks de­scended from the dark heavens to airlift the most seriously wounded.

From Time

So close were we, that had the stranger been pitching instead of ’scending at the moment, her jibboom-end must have passed through the peak of our trysail.

From Project Gutenberg

She was swinging slowly against the scend of the running swell—laying up to the wind.

From Project Gutenberg

Marster John die, us 'scend to his brother Robert and his wife Mistress Mary.

From Project Gutenberg