ASCENDANT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ascendant

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/əsˈɛndənt/ Listen

noun

Ascendant n.

1.

Ascent; height; elevation. (R.) "Sciences that were then in their highest ascendant."

2.

(Astrol.) The horoscope, or that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the moment of one's birth; supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's life and fortune. Note: Hence the phrases To be in the ascendant, to have commanding power or influence, and Lord of the ascendant, one who has possession of such power or influence; as, to rule, for a while, lord of the ascendant.

3.

Superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency; as, one man has the ascendant over another. "Chievres had acquired over the mind of the young monarch the ascendant not only of a tutor, but of a parent."

4.

An ancestor, or one who precedes in genealogy or degrees of kindred; a relative in the ascending line; a progenitor; opposed to descendant.

adjective

Ascendent, Ascendant adj.

1.

Rising toward the zenith; above the horizon. "The constellation... about that time ascendant."

2.

Rising; ascending.

3.

Superior; surpassing; ruling. "An ascendant spirit over him." "The ascendant community obtained a surplus of wealth." "Without some power of persuading or confuting, of defending himself against accusations,... no man could possibly hold an ascendent position."

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Etymology of 'Ascendant'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ascendant" Quotes from Famous Books

... object of spoiling his aim and preventing him from getting a shot in. When this latter has been to some extent accomplished, mainly by the agency of artillery, the bayonet and other weapons for use at close quarters will once more be in the ascendant. Thin shields of hard steel will be affixed to the rifles of the attacking party, so as to ...

— Twentieth Century Inventions - A Forecast • George Sutherland

... improves its productions by the ascension of those saline spirituous particles that are thus lodged in the Seed when put into the Ground, and are part of the nourishment the After-Crop enjoys; and for this reason I doubt not, but when time has got the ascendant of prejudice, the whole Nation will come into the practice of the invaluable Receipt published in two Books, entituled, Chiltern and Vale Farming Explained, and, The Practical Farmer; both writ by William Ellis of Little Gaddesden near ...

— The London and Country Brewer • Anonymous

... John Norreys and Sir Francis Drake in a bootless but not unprofitable expedition to Lisbon. On his return from the Portugal voyage his court fortunes underwent a change. Essex, who had long scorned "that knave Ralegh," was in the ascendant. Ralegh found the Queen, for some reason or another, and reasons were not hard to find, offended and dangerous. He bent before the storm. In the end of the summer of 1589, he was in Ireland, looking after his large seignories, his law-suits with the old proprietors, his castle ...

— Spenser - (English Men of Letters Series) • R. W. Church

... his genius, and by intrigue only did he ever seek to arrive at any end he had in view.* He soon obtained a mysterious and pervading power over Gerald and myself. Your temper at once irritated him, and made him despair of obtaining an ascendant over one who, though he testified in childhood none of the talents for which he has since been noted, testified, nevertheless, a shrewd, penetrating, and sarcastic power of observation and detection. You, therefore, he ...

— Devereux, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... men to get any hold on the fast set who were now in the ascendant. It was not in the nature of things that they should understand each other; in fact, they were hopelessly at war, and the college was getting more and more out of ...

— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

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