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more about descending
descending |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Descend \De*scend"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Descended}; p. pr & vb n. {Descending}.] [F. descendre, L. descendere, descensum de- + scandere to climb. See {Scan}.] 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 --Matt. vii. 25. We will here descend to matters of later date. --Fuller. 2. To enter mentally; to retire. [Poetic] [He] 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. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Descending \De*scend"ing\, a. Of or pertaining to descent; moving downwards. {Descending constellations} or {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. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: descending adj : coming down or downward [syn: {descending(a)}] [ant: {ascending(a)}]
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