DESCENDING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Descending

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/dɪsˈɛndɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Descend 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."

Descend v. i. (past & past part. descended; pres. part. descending)

1.

To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, as by falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to plunge; to fall; to incline downward; the opposite of ascend. "The rain descended, and the floods came." "We will here descend to matters of later date."

2.

To enter mentally; to retire. (Poetic) "(He) with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended."

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."

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.

adjective

Descending adj. Of or pertaining to descent; moving downwards.

Descending constellations or Descending signs (Astron.), those through which the planets descent toward the south.

Descending node (Astron.), that point in a planet's orbit where it intersects the ecliptic in passing southward.

Descending series (Math.), a series in which each term is numerically smaller than the preceding one; also, a series arranged according to descending powers of a quantity.

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Etymology of 'Descending'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Descending" Quotes from Famous Books

... to hear that there are yet depths to which you think me incapable of descending, and that Miss Watervliet is one of them. I will now take a little higher ground. Perhaps you think I flirted with Mrs. Dawes. I thought, myself, that the thing might begin to have that appearance, ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... as representing certain of the gods. All of the animals are by no means shown in this position. The screech owl, or Moan bird (as in Dresden 10a) appears most frequently in this way. The king vulture (Dresden 8a), the dog (Dresden 7a), and the parrot (Dresden 40b) come next in descending importance. The animals represented as copulating (as in Dresden 13c) might also be considered as mythological animals as well as the full drawings of the jaguar (Dresden 8a) and the other animals when they occur alone in the regular vignette of the tonalamatl. The four ...

— Animal Figures in the Maya Codices • Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen

... Descending from the level of the ground by a flight of steps into one of the narrow underground passages, one sees on either side, by the light of the taper with which he is provided, range upon range of tombs cut, as has been described, in the walls that border the ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various

... captain's wife was being lowered into the boat on the starboard side. She had been aroused by her husband, who assisted her to dress, and as a precaution against sinking she put on a cork belt. As she was descending, the Captain waved his hands, and said, 'Good-bye, my dear, good-bye;' and his wife replied, 'Good-bye, my love; I don't expect to see you any more.' One poor fellow who jumped with me on to the tops of the pile of boats, said, 'My last minute's come; if you should live ...

— Grace Darling - Heroine of the Farne Islands • Eva Hope

... to attain those modern languages which are deriv'd from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true that, if you can clamber and get to the top of a staircase without using the steps, you will more easily gain them in descending; but certainly, if you begin with the lowest you will with more ease ascend to the top; and I would therefore offer it to the consideration of those who superintend the education of our youth, whether, since many of those who begin with the Latin quit the same ...

— The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin

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