De*scent" (?), n. [F. descente, fr. descendre; like vente, from vendre. See Descend.]
1.
The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower.
2.
Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; -- often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy.
The United Provinces . . . ordered public prayer to God, when they feared that the French and English fleets would make a descent upon their coasts.
Jortin.
3.
Progress downward, as in station, virtue, as in station, virtue, and the like, from a higher to a lower state, from a higher to a lower state, from the more to the less important, from the better to the worse, etc.
2.
Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction.
Dryden.
5. Law
Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity.
Abbott.
6.
Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent.
7.
That which is descended; descendants; issue.
If care of our descent perplex us most,
Which must be born to certain woe.
Milton.
8.
A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation.
No man living is a thousand descents removed from Adam himself.
Hooker.
9.
Lowest place; extreme downward place.
[R.]
And from the extremest upward of thy head,
To the descent and dust below thy foot.
Shak.
10. Mus.
A passing from a higher to a lower tone.
Syn. -- Declivity; slope; degradation; extraction; lineage; assault; invasion; attack.
© Webster 1913.