descend

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.”),^[1] 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,^[2] 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.^[3]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛnd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dəˈsɛnd/, /di-/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnd
• Hyphenation: de‧scend

descend (third-person singular simple present descends, present participle descending, simple past and past participle descended)

1. Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position.
   1. (transitive) 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.

      they descended the river in boats    to descend a ladder

      • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, line 1497:

        hey both deſcend the Hill; […]

      • 1756 (date written), [Edmund Burke], “Sect. XVII. The Effects of Blackness.”, in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, London: R and J Dodsley, , published 1757, →OCLC, part IV, page 146:

        f, after deſcending a flight of ſtairs, vve attempt inadvertently to take another ſtep in the manner of the former ones, the ſhock is extreamly rude and diſagreeable; and by no art, can vve cauſe ſuch a ſhock by the ſame means, vvhen vve expect and prepare for it.

      • 1816 February 13, [Lord Byron], “Parisina”, in The Siege of Corinth. A Poem. Parisina. A Poem, London: [T Davison] for John Murray, , →OCLC, stanza XX, page 87, lines 536–537:

        But never tear his cheek descended, / And never smile his brow unbended; […]

      • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter IX, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volume II, London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 152:

        I saw him descend the mountain with greater speed than the flight of an eagle, and quickly lost among the undulations of the sea of ice.

      • 1934, J B Priestley, “To East Durham and the Tees”, in English Journey , London: William Heinemann in association with Victor Gollancz, →OCLC, section 1, page 323:

        hese men descend very steep and dangerous cliffs near Seaham Harbour and pick up coal from the shore.

   2. (transitive) Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a hill, a slope, etc.).

      They took the steep path that descends the hill down to the beach.

   3. (transitive, archaic) To move (someone or something) from a higher to a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down.
      • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “Concerning Vegetables, and Especially Insecta Animalia; whether any of Them are Sponte Orta, or Arise Not rather Ex Præexistente Semine”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, , published 1677, →OCLC, section III, page 267:

        he common Devv exhaled from ſome ſorts of Herbs or VVeeds, but eſpecially from the common Graſs, carries vvith it the Seminal Tincture of the Herb, vvhich being again deſcended by Devvs or Rain upon the bare and naked Earth, re-produceth the ſame Species: […]

   4. (intransitive) 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.

      Antonyms: ascend, climb, go up, rise

      • 1528 September 24 (Gregorian calendar), J S Brewer, compiler, “ Dated Hampton Court, 14 Sept. 20 Hen. VIII.]”, in Letters and papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. , volume IV, part II, London: Longman & Co., and Trübner & Co., , published 1872, →OCLC, paragraph 5102 (Calais), page 2232:

        And there is another watergang, called Haile Fayers watergang, 4 miles long and 16 feet broad, which descendeth by a spoye of stone at Hofkirk bridge into the said great river, which must always be cast at the tenants' cost.

      • 1534 (date written; published 1553), Thomas More, “A Dyalogue of Comforte agaynste Tribulacyon, . Of the Deuill Named Negotium Perambulans in Tenebris, that is to Wit, Busines Walking in the Darkenesses.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, , London: Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, book II, page 1124, column 2:

        They leade theyr life in pleaſure, & at a poppe, down they deſcende into hell.

      • 1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, “An Ordre for Euensong throughout the Yeare”, in The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, , London: Edowardi Whitchurche , →OCLC, folio vii, recto:

        So God and man is one Chriſte. / Who ſuffered for oure ſaluacion: deſcended into hell, roſe agayne the third daye from the dead. / He aſcended into heauen, he ſytteth on the right hand of the father, God almighty: from whence he ſhall come to iudge the quicke and dead.

      • 1606, Anth Langvier, “A Caueat or Lesson of Instruction vnto the Reader, ”, in Charles Steuens [i.e., Charles Estienne], John Liebault [i.e., Jean Liébault], translated by Richard Surflet, Maison Rustique, or The Countrey Farme: , London: Arnold Hatfield for Iohn Norton and Iohn Bill, →OCLC, book I:

        […] Noe [i.e., Noah] vvith his familie comming out of the arke vpon the top of the mount Cordicus, deſcended into the plaine at the foote of the mountaine filled vvith dead bodies (vvhich is called Miri Adam, vvhich is as much as the place of bovvelled men) […]

      • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Matthew 7:25, column 1:

        And the raine deſcended, and the floods came, and the windes blew, and beat vpon that houſe; and it fell not: for it was founded vpon a rock.

      • 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: , London: Nath Ponder , →OCLC:

        Dark Clouds bring VVaters, vvhen the bright bring none / Yea, dark or bright, if they their Silver drops / Cause to deſcend, the Earth, by yielding crops, / Gives praiſe to both, and carpeth not at either, / But treaſures up the Fruit they yield together: […]

      • 1648, Robert Herrick, “To His Learned Friend, M. Jo Harmar, Phisitian to the Colledge of Westminster”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine , London: John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho Hunt, , →OCLC, page 357:

        But this I knovv, ſhould Jupiter agen / Deſcend from heaven, to re-converſe vvith men; / The Romane Language full and ſuperfine, / If Iove vvo'd ſpeake, he vvo'd accept of thine.

      • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volume II, London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 31:

        The air was cold, and the rain again began to descend: we entered the hut, the fiend with an air of exultation, I with a heavy heart and depressed spirits.

      • a. 1862 (date written), Arthur Hugh Clough, “”, in Poems: With a Memoir, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; London: Macmillan and Co. , published 1862, →OCLC, page 76:

        O stream descending to the sea, / Thy mossy banks between, / The flow'rets blow, the grasses grow, / The leafy trees are green. // In garden plots the children play, / The fields the labourers till, / And houses stand on either hand, / And thou descendest still.

      • 1841, Edward William Lane, transl., The Thousand and One Nights, Commonly Called, in England, The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. , volume III, London: Charles Knight and Co., , →OCLC, page 453:

        And they accosted the sheykh Abu-r-Ruweysh and said to him, O our sheykh, Bahrám practised a strategem to effect his ascent to the top of the mountain, and how did he descend, and what wonders did he see upon the mountain? The sheykh Abu-r-Ruweysh therefore said, O Ḥasan, tell them how thou descendedst, and acquaint them with the wonders that thou sawest.

      • 1844, Alexander Watson, “Whit Sunday. ”, in The Churchman’s Sunday Evenings at Home, volume II, London: W. J. Cleaver, ; Rugeley, Staffordshire: J. T. Walters, →OCLC, page 163:

        Let that mighty rushing wind, in which aforetime Thou descendedst, purge away the chaff of our carnal affections, and with a holy violence beat down our strongholds of sin, and all the proud imaginations that resist Thy grace.

      • 1934, J B Priestley, “To East Durham and the Tees”, in English Journey , London: William Heinemann in association with Victor Gollancz, →OCLC, section 1, page 330:

        As it is, the miner is one of the most overworked and deplorably underpaid men in the country. […] I know very well that if your supply of coal depended on my walking several miles to a pithead, descending in a cage for half a mile, walking again to the dwindling tunnel where I had to work, then slogging away for about seven hours in that hell, all for something like two pounds a week, your grates would be empty.

      • 2001 May, John Griesemer, chapter 20, in No One Thinks of Greenland, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, page 187:

        Rudy felt a gust of fear rise in his chest, and he looked again in the mirror, but the hangar and stable were now beyond the rise, out of sight, he was descending so fast.

      1. (astrology) 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.
      2. (astronomy) Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.
         • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 540–543:

           he ſetting Sun / Slowly deſcended, and with right aſpect / Againſt the eaſtern Gate of Paradiſe / Leveld his eevning Rayes: […]

         • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volume III, London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, pages 116–117:

           The moon had reached her summit in the heavens and was beginning to descend; the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture and dimmed her rays, while the lake reflected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the restless waves that were beginning to rise.

         • a. 1836 (date written), James Hogg, Flodden Field; republished in Robert Murray, “James Hogg”, in Hawick Songs and Song Writers, 3rd edition, Hawick, Roxburghshire: W. & J. Kennedy, 1897, →OCLC, page 31:

           Sol, with broaden'd orb, descending, / Left fierce warriors still contending, / Brilliant Vesper shed her glances, / Ere they sheathed their blood-stained lances.

      3. (biology, physiology) 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.

         Cryptorchidism is the failure of one or both testes to descend into the scrotum.

      4. (chemistry, obsolete) 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.
   5. (intransitive) To slope or stretch downwards.
      • 1726, Homer, “Book XVII”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume IV, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 118, lines 230–231:

        Novv paſs'd the rugged road, they journey dovvn / The cavern'd vvay deſcending to the tovvn, […]

   6. (intransitive, chiefly historical) To alight from a carriage, a horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land.
      • 1726, Homer, “Book XV”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume IV, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 48, lines 437–440:

        Their ſails they loos'd, they laſh'd the maſt aſide, / And caſt their anchors, and the cables ty'd: / Then on the breezy ſhore deſcending, join / In grateful banquet o'er the roſy vvine.

      • 1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, chapter XVII, in The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 164:

        About ten o'clock a horse and wagon was descried making a slow approach to the camp over the prairie. […] When the conveyance at length drew up to Mr. Thompson's door, the gentleman descended with great deliberation, straightened himself up, rubbed his hands, and beaming satisfaction from every part of his radiant frame, advanced to the group that was gathered to welcome him, and which had saluted him by name as soon as he came within hearing.

   7. (intransitive, figurative)
      1. To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality.
         • 1605, Jos Hall, “Paragraph 78”, in Meditations and Vowes, Diuine and Morall. , London: Humfrey Lownes, for Iohn Porter, →OCLC, 2nd book, page 199:

           […] VVinter comes on ſoftly, firſt by colde devves, then hoare froſts, vntill at laſt it deſcende to the hardeſt vveather of all: […]

         • 1619–1620, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The False One. A Tragedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 139, column 1:

           Thy glories novv have touch'd the higheſt point, / And muſt deſcend.

      2. Of a physical thing (such as a a cloud or storm) or a (generally negative) immaterial thing (such as darkness, gloom, or silence): to settle upon and start to affect a person or place.
         • 1594, Robert Garnier, translated by Thomas Kid [i.e., Thomas Kyd], Pompey the Great, His Faire Corneliaes Tragedie: , London: [James Roberts] for Nicholas Ling, published 1595, →OCLC, act I, signature B, verso:

           Death dvvels vvithin vs, and if gentle Peace / Diſcend not ſoone, our ſorrovves to ſurceaſe, / Latium (alreadie quaild) vvill be deſtroyd.

         • 1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume I, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 205, lines 1009–1012:

           Hear, Goddeſs, hear, by thoſe oblations vvon; / And for the pious fire preſerve the ſon: / His vviſh'd return vvith happy povv'r befriend, / And on the Suitors let thy vvrath deſcend.

         • 1862, [Joseph Converse Heywood], Salome, the Daughter of Herodias. A Dramatic Poem, New York, N.Y.: Putnam, , →OCLC, pages 244–245:

           Death spreadeth darkly above thee, / Descendeth, descendeth upon thee, / Suffocating! suffocating! ah!

         • 1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, chapter XXV, in The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 230:

           And she managed to keep the good news to herself, though it would seem that the most careless observer might have seen by her springing step and her radiant countenance that some fine piece of good fortune had descended upon her.

         • 1934, J B Priestley, “To Lancashire”, in English Journey , London: William Heinemann in association with Victor Gollancz, →OCLC, section 4, page 274:

           ll the tall chimneys in it [a photograph]—and I can count twenty-five—are smoking furiously, belching out thick dark clouds that look as if they will descend on the ugly conglomeration of roofs below. That is what it must have looked like throughout all the great days of the industry.

      3. In speech or writing: to proceed from one matter to another; especially, to pass from more general or important to specific or less important matters to be considered.
         • 1655, Thomas Fuller, “The Re-foundation of Waltham-Abby by Henry the Second”, in The History of Waltham-Abby in Essex, Founded by King Harold, London: Iohn Williams ], →OCLC, page 11:

           But this ſubject begins to ſvvell beyond the bounds intended unto it, leſt therefore vvhat vve intended but a Tract ſhould ſvvell to a Tome, vve vvill here deſcend to matters of later date.

         • 1759 August 25, [Samuel Johnson], “The Idler. No. 72.”, in The Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette, volume II, number 73, London: R. Stevens, , →OCLC, page 1, column 3:

           He imagined that he had novv purchaſed the privilege of diſcourſe and began to deſcend to familiar queſtions, endeavouring to accommodate his diſcourſe to the groſſneſs of ruſtick underſtandings.

         • 1797, Edmund Burke, “Letter III.”, in A Third Letter to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France, London: F and C Rivington, ; sold also by J Hatchard, , →OCLC, page 121:

           But let us deſcend to particulars.

         • 1827 March, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[Niccolò] Machiavelli. ”, in Critical and Historical Essays, Contributed to the Edinburgh Review. , 2nd edition, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, , published 1843, →OCLC, page 70:

           Historians rarely descend to those details from which alone the real state of a community can be collected.

      4. Chiefly followed by into or to: of a situation: to become worse; to decline, to deteriorate.

         Synonym: degenerate

         The meeting descended into chaos.

      5. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to make an attack or incursion, from or as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
         • 1893 April, Hanns Oertel, “Article IV. The Jāiminīya or Talavakāra Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa: Text, Translation, and Notes”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume XVI, New Haven, Conn.: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, printers to Yale University for the American Oriental Society, published 1896, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 201:

           When moving down against thou descendest against the sleeping man unknowing, let Varuṇa cover me with a golden armor.

         • 1934, J B Priestley, “To the Tyne”, in English Journey , London: William Heinemann in association with Victor Gollancz, →OCLC, section 1, page 288:

           I suffer at times from damp snivelling colds in the head, which descend upon me quite suddenly, turning me into a helpless and disgusting red-nosed and red-eyed animal feebly crying for still more handkerchiefs.

         • 2013, Alfred Grossmith Mason, Julie Grossmith Deltrice, Arctic Warriors: A Personal Account of Convoy PQ18‎, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Books, →ISBN:

           he low growl of engines coming from high above the cloud cover, alerts us to the fact that there are many more aircraft descending on us than had done during previous visits from the snoopers in their usual ones and twos.

      6. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to arrive suddenly or unexpectedly, especially in a manner that causes disruption or inconvenience.

         My neighbour descended upon me just as I was walking out the door.

      7. (reflexive) To come down to a humbler or less fortunate, or a worse or less virtuous, rank or state; to abase or lower oneself; to condescend or stoop to something.

         He descended from his high estate.

         • 1608, Jos Hall, “Of the Truly-noble”, in Characters of Vertues and Vices: , London: Melch Bradwood for Eleazar Edgar and Samuel Macham, , →OCLC, 1st book (Characterismes of Vertues), page 54:

           f (as ſeldome) he deſcend to diſports of chance, his games ſhall neuer make him either pale vvith feare, or hote vvith deſire of gaine.

         • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 168–171:

           But what will not Ambition and Revenge / Deſcend to? vvho aſpires muſt down as low / As high he ſoard, obnoxious firſt or laſt / To baſeſt things.

         • 1752 March 28 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. 208. , March 17. 1752.”, in The Rambler, volume VIII, Edinburgh: Sands, Murray, and Cochran; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, , published 1752, →OCLC, page 171:

           If I have not been diſtinguiſhed by the diſtributers of literary honours, I have ſeldom deſcended to any of the arts by vvhich favour is obtained.

         • 1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, 8th edition, London: Thomas Davison, , for John Murray, , →OCLC, page 42, lines 850–852:

           Not oft to smile descendeth he, / And when he doth 'tis sad to see / That he but mocks at Misery.

         • 1827 March, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[Niccolò] Machiavelli. ”, in Critical and Historical Essays, Contributed to the Edinburgh Review. , 2nd edition, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, , published 1843, →OCLC, page 92:

           But that a shrewd statesman, whose earliest works are characterised by manliness of thought and language, should, at near sixty years of age, descend to such puerility, is utterly inconceivable.

      8. (reflexive, chiefly poetic or religion) Chiefly in the form descend into (or within) oneself: to mentally enter a state of (deep) meditation or thought; to retire.
         • 1653, James Howell, “The Oration of the Lord George Frederique, Baron of Limburg, and Hereditary Officer to the Sacred Roman Empire, and Allwayes Free. Against Spain.”, in A German Diet: Or, The Ballance of Europe, , London: Humphrey Moseley, , →OCLC, page 26:

           VVhen I deſcend into my ſelf, and contemplat my moſt terrible horrible terribility, I can hardly hold my ſelf vvithin my ſelf; […]

         • 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J M for John Starkey , →OCLC, page 34, lines 111–113:

           vvith holieſt Meditations fed, / Into himſelf deſcended, and at once / All his great vvork to come before him ſet; […]

         • 1797, Edmund Burke, “Letter III.”, in A Third Letter to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France, London: F and C Rivington, ; sold also by J Hatchard, , →OCLC, page 89:

           Let us deſcend into our ovvn boſoms; let us aſk ourſelves vvhat are our duties, and vvhat are our means of diſcharging them.

      9. (mathematics) Of a sequence or series: to proceed from higher to lower values.
         • 1715, George Cheyne, “Of the Use of the Arithmetick of Infinites. Corollary I.”, in Philosophical Principles of Religion: Natural and Revealed:  Philosophical Principles of Religion. Part II. , London: George Strahan , →OCLC, page 162:

           Indefinite numbers I ſuppoſe to be intermediate Numbers lying betvveen finite and infinite: For as vve do not deſcend from 1 to 0 at one Step, but muſt paſs through an infinite Series of Fractions, ½, ⅓, ¼, ¹⁄₅, &c.

      10. (music) To pass from a higher to a lower note or tone; to fall in pitch.
2. Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing.
   1. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To trace (a lineage) from earlier to later generations.
   2. (intransitive) Of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a parent to a child.
      • 1713 December 19 (Gregorian calendar), Richard Steele, “December 8. .”, in The Englishman: Being the Sequel of the Guardian, collected edition, number 28, London: Sam Buckley , published 1714, →OCLC, page 182:

        he eternal Mark of having had a vvicked Anceſtor deſcends to his Poſterity; his VVife is deprived of her Dovvry, and all his Deſcendants are made ignoble: […]

   3. (intransitive, often passive voice) Chiefly followed by from or (obsolete) of: to come down or derive from an ancestor or ancestral stock, or a source; to originate, to stem.

      The beggar may descend from a prince.

      • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 140, column 1:

        The Rebels are in Southvvarke: Fly my Lord: / Iacke Cade proclaimes himſelfe Lord Mortimer, / Deſcended from the Duke of Clarence houſe, / And calles your Grace Vſurper, openly, / And vovves to Crovvne himſelfe in VVeſtminſter.

      • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 188, column 1:

        Thou ſhould'ſt haue better pleas'd me vvith this deede, / Hadſt thou deſcended from another houſe: […]

      • 1616, Charles Steuens [i.e., Charles Estienne], John Liebault [i.e., Jean Liébault]; Gervase Markham, “ What Dogs are Best for the Course or Hunting.”, in Richard Surflet, transl., Maison Rustique, or, The Countrey Farme. , new edition, London: Adam Jslip for John Bill, →OCLC, book VII (The Warren), page 674:

        f a dog be not vvel deſcended, that is to ſay, begot by an excellent dog, or an excellent bitch, there can be little hope of his goodneſſe.

      • 1711 June 10 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 78; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume I, New York, N.Y.: D Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 469:

        The humble petition of WHO and WHICH, […] We are descended of ancient families, and kept up our dignity and honour many years till the jack-sprat THAT supplanted us.

        The spelling has been modernized.

      • 1788, Edward Gibbon, “Zeno and Anastasius, Emperors of the East ”, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume IV, London: W Strahan; and T Cadell, , →OCLC, page 4:

        An hero, deſcended from a race of Kings, muſt have deſpiſed the baſe Iſaurian vvho vvas inveſted vvith the Roman purple, vvithout any endovvments of mind or body, vvithout any advantages of royal birth, or ſuperior qualifications.

      • 1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, chapter XXI, in The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 196:

        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.

      • 1944, W Somerset Maugham, chapter 3, in The Razor’s Edge , 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC, section v, page 140:

        Didn't you know? I am descended in the female line from the Court de Lauria who came over to England in the suite of Philip the Second and married a maid of honour of Queen Mary.

   4. (intransitive, chiefly law) Of property, a right, etc.: to pass down to a generation, a person, etc., by inheritance.

      The crown descends to the heir of the previous monarch.

      • 1628, Edw Coke, “Of Rents”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. , London: for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 2, section 222, folio 148, verso:

        f the Tenant giue a part of the Tenancie to the father of the Lord in Taile, the father dieth, and this deſcends to the Lord, in this caſe by Act in Law the Seigniorie is ſuſpended in part and in eſſe for part, and the ſame Law is of a Rent charge.

      • 1765, William Blackstone, “Of Corporations”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 469:

        As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, vvhich vvould otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]

      • 1911, J G Frazer, “The Fire-drill”, in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, 3rd edition, part I (The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, volume II), London: Macmillan and Co., , →OCLC, page 217:

        The possession of the sacred fire and of the ancestral sticks, carrying with it both political authority and priestly dignity, descends in the male line, and hence generally passes from father to son.

descend (plural descends)

1. (archaic) Synonym of descent (“instance of descending; sloping incline or passage; way down; decline, etc.”)
   • 1607, Gervase Markham, “Of a Horses Labour or Exercise, and how He shall be Ordered when He is Iourneyed”, in Cauelarice, or The English Horseman: , London: [Edward Allde and W Jaggard] for Edward White, , →OCLC, 5th book, page 33:

     t ſhall be good if in your iourney you come to the deſcend of anye great Hil, to light from your Horſes backe, and to vvalke dovvne the hill a foote, […]

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descend

1. third-person singular present indicative of descendre