What does "descend" mean?
Descend: We will here descend to matters of later date. Fuller.
Additional senses
- 2.To enter mentally; to retire. [Poetic] [He] with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended. Milton.
- 3.To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence; -- with on or upon. And on the suitors let thy wrath descend. Pope.
- 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.
- 5.To pass from the more general or important to the particular or less important matters to be considered.
- 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.
- 7.(Anat.) To move toward the south, or to the southward.
- 8.(Mus.) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
- 9.To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of; as, they descended the river in boats; to descend a ladder. But never tears his cheek descended. Byron.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00