| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| descend |
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| SYLLABICATION: | de·scend |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  d -s nd |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: de·scend·ed, de·scend·ing, de·scends
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To move from a higher to a lower place; come or go down. 2. To slope, extend, or incline downward: “A rough path descended like a steep stair into the plain” (J.R.R. Tolkien). 3a. To come from an ancestor or ancestry: He was descended from a pioneer family. b. To come down from a source; derive: a tradition descending from colonial days. c. To pass by inheritance: The house has descended through four generations. 4. To lower oneself; stoop: “She, the conqueror, had descended to the level of the conquered” (James Bryce). 5. To proceed or progress downward, as in rank, pitch, or scale: titles listed in descending order of importance; notes that descended to the lower register. 6. To arrive or attack in a sudden or an overwhelming manner: summer tourists descending on the seashore village. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To move from a higher to a lower part of; go down. b. To get down from: “People descended the minibus that shuttled guests to the nearby . . . beach” (Howard Kaplan). 2. To extend or proceed downward along: a road that descended the mountain in sharp curves. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English descenden, from Old French descendre, from Latin d scendere : d-, de- + scandere, to climb; see skand- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | de·scendi·ble, de·scenda·ble —ADJECTIVE
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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