Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DE-SCEND', v.i. [L. descendo; de and scando, to climb; W. discynu, from cynu, to rise, cwn, top; It. discendere; Fr. descendre; Sp. descender; Arm. disgenn. The root cwn is from extending, shooting, thrusting, as gin in begin.]

1. To move or pass from a higher to a lower place; to move, come or go downward; to fall; to sink; to run or flow down; applicable to any kind of motion or of body. We descend on the feet, on wheels, or by falling. A torrent descends from a mountain. The rains descended, and the floods came. – Matt. vii.
2. To go down, or to enter. He shall descend into battle and perish. – 1 Sam. xxvi.
3. To come suddenly; to fall violently. And on the suitors let thy wrath descend. – Pope.
4. To go in; to enter. He, with honest meditations fed, / Into himself descended. – Milton.
5. To rush; to invade, as an enemy. The Grecian fleet descending on the town. – Dryden.
6. To proceed from a source or original; to be derived. The beggar may descend from a prince, and a prince from a beggar.
7. To proceed, as from father to son; to pass from a preceding possessor, in the order of lineage, or according to the laws of succession or inheritance. Thus, an inheritance descends to the son or next of kin; a crown descends to the heir.
8. To pass from general to particular considerations; as, having explained the general subject, we will descend to particulars.
9. To come down from an elevated or honorable station; in a figurative sense. Flavius is an honorable man; he can not descend to acts of meanness.
10. In music, to fall in sound; to pass from any note to another less acute or shrill, or from sharp to flat. – Rousseau.