descend
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
descend
v 1: move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way;
"The temperature is going down"; "The barometer is
falling"; "The curtain fell on the diva"; "Her hand went up
and then fell again" [syn: {descend}, {fall}, {go down},
{come down}] [ant: {arise}, {ascend}, {come up}, {go up},
{lift}, {move up}, {rise}, {uprise}]
2: come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for
example; "She was descended from an old Italian noble
family"; "he comes from humble origins" [syn: {derive},
{come}, {descend}]
3: do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
[syn: {condescend}, {deign}, {descend}]
4: come as if by falling; "Night fell"; "Silence fell" [syn:
{fall}, {descend}, {settle}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Descend \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.
[1913 Webster]
The rain descended, and the floods came. --Matt.
vii. 25.
[1913 Webster]
We will here descend to matters of later date.
--Fuller.
[1913 Webster]
2. To enter mentally; to retire. [Poetic]
[1913 Webster]
[He] with holiest meditations fed,
Into himself descended. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage
ground; to come suddenly and with violence; -- with on or
upon.
[1913 Webster]
And on the suitors let thy wrath descend. --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
5. To pass from the more general or important to the
particular or less important matters to be considered.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
7. (Anat.) To move toward the south, or to the southward.
[1913 Webster]
8. (Mus.) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower
tone.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
143 Moby Thesaurus words for "descend":
advance, alight, ascend, assault, attack, back, back up, bank,
be shamed, budge, cant, careen, cascade, cataract, change,
change hands, change ownership, change place, circle, climb,
climb down, collapse, come down, come in, condescend, crash,
crash-land, decline, degenerate, deign, derogate, descend on,
devolve, dip, dip down, disimprove, disintegrate, ditch, down,
downwind, drop, drop down, drop off, ebb, fall, fall away,
fall down, fall into disrepute, fall off, flow, get down, get over,
go, go around, go down, go downhill, go round, go sideways,
go uphill, grade, gravitate, gyrate, head, incline,
incur discredit, incur disesteem, incur disgrace, invade, keel,
land, lead, lean, level off, light, list, lose altitude,
lose caste, lose countenance, lose credit, lose face, lower,
lower oneself, mount, move, move over, overshoot, pancake,
parachute, pass on, pitch, plummet, plunge, point, pounce,
pounce on, pounce upon, pour down, precipitate, progress, rain,
rake, regress, retreat, retrograde, retrogress, rise, rot, rotate,
run, settle, settle down, shelve, shift, sidle, sink, slant, slope,
soar, spin, stir, stoop, stream, subside, succeed, swag, sway,
swoop, swoop down on, swoop down upon, talk down, tend, tend to go,
tilt, tip, touch down, travel, trend downward, uprise, upwind,
vouchsafe, wane, whirl, worsen
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