释义 |
▪ I. ascending, vbl. n.|əˈsɛndɪŋ| [f. ascend v. + -ing1.] The action of the verb ascend; ascent, ascension. attrib. in ascending latitude: the latitude of a planet when ascending or going northward. ascending node: the point in a planet's orbit where it crosses the ecliptic in ascending.
1482Monk of Evesham (1869) 108 Ther was no taryng yn her ascendyng. a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. viii. §5 The highest ascending of our contemplation. 1846Keble Lyra Innoc. (1873) 20 Touch Me not till Mine ascending. ▪ II. aˈscending, ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ing2.] 1. Rising, mounting up.
1667[see ascend v. 3]. 1715Pope Iliad xvi. 436 Dark o'er the fields th' ascending vapour flies. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 41 The uppermost portion of the ascending current. b. spec. in Typogr.
1676Moxon Print Lett. 6 The Top-line is the line that bounds the top of the Ascending Letters. 1867[see ascender.] 2. Sloping upwards; acclivitous.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 5 Want of Water in high and ascending places. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 754 Bak'd in the Sun-shine of ascending Fields. 1881Daily News 31 Aug. 2/2 A handsome building..backed by ascending woods. 3. Directed upwards: applied spec. in Phys. to structures that pass, or serve as a passage, from a lower to a higher part of the body; in Bot. a. to a procumbent stem which gradually curves to an erect position; b. to ovules attached a little above the base of the ovary, and pointing obliquely upwards; c. fig. to development of higher forms from lower, as of petals from sepals, carpels from stamens, etc.
a1713Cheselden in Derham Phys.-Theol. (1752) iv. vii. 157 The blood..brought to the heart by the ascending cava. 1854Balfour Bot. 47 The stem is the ascending portion of the axis. 1859Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. V. 365/2 The ascending colon lies on the right kidney. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. I. 3 An ascending stem..on first emerging from the root, is horizontal, and then becomes erect. 1870Hooker Stud. Flora 113 Dryas..ovule 1, ascending. 4. In various transf. or fig. uses; cf. ascend v. 7, 8.
1762Kames Elem. Crit. iv. (1833) 114 An increasing series of numbers..is commonly called an ascending series. 1869Ouseley Counterpoint xiii. 72 The diminished fifth..should be prepared by a sixth, with an ascending bass. 5. Going backwards in order of genealogical succession; of or pertaining to ancestors.
1703J. Quick Ser. Inquiry 12 In the Right Line ascending and descending, there are as many Degrees as there be Generations and Persons. 1757Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. Wks. X. 334 The ascending collateral branch was much regarded amongst the ancient Germans. 1875[see ascend v. 9.] |