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.
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.
© Webster 1913.
De*scend" (?), v. t.
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.