Library / English Dictionary

DESCEND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Come as if by falling

Example:

Silence fell

Synonyms:

descend; fall; settle

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "descend" is one way to...):

come (come to pass; arrive, as in due course)

Verb group:

fall (go as if by falling)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way

Example:

Her hand went up and then fell again

Synonyms:

come down; descend; fall; go down

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "descend" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "descend"):

cascade; cascade down (rush down in big quantities, like a cascade)

drip (fall in drops)

pounce; swoop (move down on as if in an attack)

go down; go under; settle; sink (go under)

alight; climb down (come down)

pitch (fall or plunge forward)

plop (drop with the sound of something falling into water)

drop (to fall vertically)

topple; tumble (fall down, as if collapsing)

flop (fall suddenly and abruptly)

crash (fall or come down violently)

sink; subside (descend into or as if into some soft substance or place)

precipitate (fall vertically, sharply, or headlong)

correct; decline; slump (go down in value)

go down; go under; set (disappear beyond the horizon)

dive; plunge; plunk (drop steeply)

avalanche; roll down (gather into a huge mass and roll down a mountain, of snow)

dismount; get down; get off; light; unhorse (alight from (a horse))

abseil; rappel; rope down (descend by means of a rappel)

prolapse (slip or fall out of place, as of body parts)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

The airplane is sure to descend

Antonym:

ascend (travel up)

Derivation:

descendant; descendent (going or coming down)

descent (a movement downward)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Do something that one considers to be below one's dignity

Synonyms:

condescend; deign; descend

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "descend" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Sense 4

Meaning:

Come from; be connected by a relationship of blood, for example

Example:

he comes from humble origins

Synonyms:

come; derive; descend

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Verb group:

derive (come from)

come; hail (be a native of)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

descendant; descendent (a person considered as descended from some ancestor)

descent (the descendants of one individual)

descent (the kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Then François’s lash descended, and Buck had the satisfaction of watching Spitz receive the worst whipping as yet administered to any of the teams.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Out of it, in leisurely fashion, got Lord Godalming and Morris; and down from the box descended a thick-set working man with his rush-woven basket of tools.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Eventually, Hayabusa 2 will itself descend to the asteroid’s surface to collect samples which it’s aiming to return to Earth some time in 2020.

(First Ever Video of Asteroid Sent Back to Earth by Japanese Rovers, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I had supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general, but did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge, such injustice, such inhumanity as this.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

We descended and started off once more for Briony Lodge.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I stood upon a height about two hundred yards from the shore, and saw this vast body descending almost to a parallel with me, at less than an English mile distance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A fetal position during delivery in which the head of the fetus descends into the maternal pelvis.

(Cephalic Presentation, NCI Thesaurus)

Multiplication or reproduction by cell division of a population of identical cells descended from a single progenitor.

(Clonal Expansion, NCI Thesaurus)

His uplifted hand descended, and thereafter rose and fell in a swift and steady rhythm.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The right coronary artery supplies the posterior descending artery (PDA) and the circumflex supplies the posterolateral artery (PLA).

(Co-Dominant Artery, NCI Thesaurus/ACC)