Part 197

2. To enter mentally; to retire. [Poetic]

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.

De*scend" (?), v. t. 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.

De*scend"ant (?), a. [F. descendant, p. pr. of descendre. Cf. Descendent.] Descendent.

De*scend"ant, n. One who descends, as offspring, however remotely; -- correlative to ancestor or ascendant.

Our first parents and their descendants.

Hale.

The descendant of so many kings and emperors.

Burke.

De*scend"ent (?), a. [L. descendens, -entis, p. pr. of descendre. Cf. Descendant.] Descending; falling; proceeding from an ancestor or source.

More than mortal grace Speaks thee descendent of ethereal race.

Pope.

De*scend"er (?), n. One who descends.

De*scend`i*bil"i*ty (?), n. The quality of being descendible; capability of being transmitted from ancestors; as, the descendibility of an estate.

De*scend"i*ble (?), a. 1. Admitting descent; capable of being descended.

2. That may descend from an ancestor to an heir. "A descendant estate." Sir W. Jones.

De*scend"ing, a. Of or pertaining to descent; moving downwards.