1. To move from a higher to a lower place; come or go down. 2. To slope, extend, or incline downward: “A rough path descended like a steep stair into the plain” (J.R.R. Tolkien). 3a. To come from an ancestor or ancestry: He was descended from a pioneer family.b. To come down from a source; derive: a tradition descending from colonial days.c. To pass by inheritance: The house has descended through four generations.4. To lower oneself; stoop: “She, the conqueror, had descended to the level of the conquered” (James Bryce). 5. 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.6. To arrive or attack in a sudden or an overwhelming manner: summer tourists descending on the seashore village.
TRANSITIVE VERB:
1a. To move from a higher to a lower part of; go down. b. To get down from: “People descended the minibus that shuttled guests to the nearby . . . beach” (Howard Kaplan). 2. To extend or proceed downward along: a road that descended the mountain in sharp curves.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English descenden, from Old French descendre, from Latin dscendere : d-, de- + scandere, to climb; see skand- in Appendix I.
d
-s
nd
scendere : d
