descend
Americanverb (used without object)
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to go or pass from a higher to a lower place; move or come down.
to descend from the mountaintop.
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to pass from higher to lower in any scale or series.
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to go from generals to particulars, as in a discussion.
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to slope, tend, or lead downward.
The path descends to the pond.
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to be inherited or transmitted, as through succeeding generations of a family.
The title descends through eldest sons.
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to have a specific person or family among one's ancestors (usually followed byfrom ).
He is descended from Cromwell.
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to be derived from something remote in time, especially through continuous transmission.
This festival descends from a druidic rite.
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to approach or pounce upon, especially in a greedy or hasty manner (followed by on orupon ).
Thrill-seekers descended upon the scene of the crime.
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to settle, as a cloud or vapor.
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to appear or become manifest, as a supernatural being, state of mind, etc..
Jupiter descended to humankind.
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to attack, especially with violence and suddenness (usually followed by on orupon ).
to descend upon enemy soldiers.
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to sink or come down from a certain intellectual, moral, or social standard.
He would never descend to baseness.
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Astronomy. to move toward the horizon, as the sun or a star.
verb (used with object)
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to move downward upon or along; go or climb down (stairs, a hill, etc.).
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to extend or lead down along.
The path descends the hill.
verb
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(also tr) to move, pass, or go down (a hill, slope, staircase, etc)
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(of a hill, slope, or path) to lead or extend down; slope; incline
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to move to a lower level, pitch, etc; fall
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(often foll by from) to be connected by a blood relationship (to a dead or extinct individual, race, species, etc)
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to be passed on by parents or ancestors; be inherited
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to sink or come down in morals or behaviour; lower oneself
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to arrive or attack in a sudden or overwhelming way
their relatives descended upon them last week
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(of the sun, moon, etc) to move towards the horizon
Other Word Forms
- descendable adjective
- descendingly adverb
- predescend verb
- redescend verb
- undescending adjective
Etymology
Origin of descend
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English descenden, from Old French descendre, from Latin dēscendere, equivalent to dē- de- + -scendere, combining form of scandere “to climb”; scansion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He will be among a record 64 heads of state or government descending on the Alpine ski resort, Brende said, including six of the G7 leaders.
From Barron's
His design included waves of metal cascading down the sides of an asymmetrical building, described by some as sheets of toilet paper descending from the sky into a canyon.
"This is important because the situation in Venezuela could easily descend into chaos," Olander says.
From BBC
Iraq descended into a bloody catastrophe after the US invasion in 2003.
From BBC
Maduro was seen surrounded by FBI agents as he descended the boarding stairs of a US government plane at a New York state National Guard facility, and was slowly escorted along the tarmac.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
