descend🔊

{{non-gloss|Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position.}}

To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something, such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon.

Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a hill, a slope, etc.).

(archaic) To move (someone or something) from a higher to a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down.

To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink.

# (astrology) Of a zodiac sign: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, of a planet: to move to a place where it has less astrological significance.

# (astronomy) Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.

# (physiology) Of a body part: to move downwards, especially during development of the embryo; specifically, of the testes of a mammal: to move downwards from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum.

# (obsolete) Of a liquid substance: to distil out from another substance and gather at the bottom of a container; also, to distil a substance to obtain another liquid substance in this manner.

To slope or stretch downwards.

(historical) To alight from a carriage, a horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land.

(figurative)

# To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality.

# Of a physical thing (such as a a cloud or storm) or a (generally negative) immaterial thing (such as darkness, gloom, or silence): to settle upon and start to affect a person or place.

# In speech or writing: to proceed from one matter to another; especially, to pass from more general or important to specific or less important matters to be considered.

# ''Chiefly followed by'' into ''or'' to: of a situation: to become worse; to decline, to deteriorate.

# ''Chiefly followed by'' on ''or'' upon: to make an attack or incursion, from or as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.

# ''Chiefly followed by'' on ''or'' upon: to arrive suddenly or unexpectedly, especially in a manner that causes disruption or inconvenience.

# (reflexive) To come down to a humbler or less fortunate, or a worse or less virtuous, rank or state; to abase or lower oneself; to condescend or stoop to something.

# (religion) ''Chiefly in the form'' descend into ''(or'' within)'' oneself: to mentally enter a state of (deep) meditation or thought; to retire.

# (mathematics) Of a sequence or series: to proceed from higher to lower values.

# (music) To pass from a higher to a lower note or tone; to fall in pitch.

{{non-gloss|Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing.}}

(rare) To trace (a lineage) from earlier to later generations.

Of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a parent to a child.

(passive voice) ''Chiefly followed by'' from ''or (obsolete)'' of: to come down or derive from an ancestor or ancestral stock, or a source; to originate, to stem.

(law) Of property, a right, etc.: to pass down to a generation, a person, etc., by inheritance.

(archaic) (t=instance of descending; sloping incline or passage; way down; decline, etc.)