descend

Forms

present (v1): descend
past (v2): descended
past participle (v3): descended
present participle: descending
3rd person singular: descends

Definitions

1.Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position.
- He descended from his high estate.
- They took the steep path that descends the hill down to the beach.
- My neighbour descended upon me just as I was walking out the door.
2.Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing.
- The beggar may descend from a prince.
- The crown descends to the heir of the previous monarch.
- They came over to Massachusetts Bay in another vessel, and thus escaped the onus of that brevet nobility under which the successors of the Mayflower Pilgrims had descended.

Frequency

Overall

Rare· #4576

By learning goal

Everyday conversation: Rare
General reading & writing: Rare
Academic: Rare
Literature: Rare

Related words

Antonyms

Synonyms

fall

Etymology

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”)).