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.
{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.