descend
Meanings
- 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.).
- 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.
- 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.
- Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.
- 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.
- 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.
- To alight from a carriage, a horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land.
- To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality.
- Synonym of descent (“instance of descending; sloping incline or passage; way down; decline, etc.”).
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
PIE word *de The verb is derived from Middle English descenden (“to move downwards, fall, descend; to slope downwards; to go from a better to a worse condition, decline, degenerate; to be a descendant, derive from (a source); etc.”), from Anglo-Norman descendere, descendre, and Old French descendere, descendre (“to move downwards, fall, descend; to slope downwards; to be a descendant, derive from (a source); etc.”) (modern French descendre), and from their etymon Latin dēscendere, the present active infinitive of dēscendō (“to come or go down, fall, descend; to slope downwards; to be a descendant; etc.”), from de- (prefix meaning ‘from; down from’) + scandō (“to ascend, climb; to clamber”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to climb, scale; to dart; to jump”)). The noun is derived from the verb.