Word forms: 3rd person singular presenttense descends, present participle descending, past tense, past participle descended
1. verb
If you descend or if you descend a staircase, you move downwards from a higher to a lower level.
[formal]
Things are cooler and more damp as we descend to the cellar. [VERB preposition]
She descended one flight of stairs. [VERB noun]
[Also VERB]
Synonyms: go down, come down, walk down, move down More Synonyms of descend
2. verb
When a mood or atmosphere descendson a place or on the people there, it affects them by spreading among them.
[literary]
An uneasy calm descended on the area. [V + on/upon/over]
A reverent hush descended on the multitude. [Von/upon/over n]
[Also VERB]
Synonyms: fall More Synonyms of descend
3. verb
If a large group of people arrive to see you, especially if their visit is unexpected or causes you a lot of work, you can say that they have descendedon you.
3,000 city officials descended on Capitol Hill to lobby for more money. [VERB + on/upon]
Curious tourists and reporters from around the globe are descending upon the peacefulvillages. [Von/upon n]
4. verb
When night, dusk, or darkness descends, it starts to get dark.
[literary]
Darkness has now descended and the moon and stars shine hazily in the clear sky. [VERB]
5. verb
If you say that someone descends to behaviour which you consider unacceptable, you are expressing your disapproval of the fact that they do it.
[disapproval]
We're not going to descend to such methods. [VERB + to]
She's got too much dignity to descend to writing anonymous letters. [Vto n/-ing]
6. verb
When you want to emphasize that the situation that someone is entering is very bad, you can say that they are descending into that situation.
[emphasis]
He was ultimately overthrown and the country descended into chaos. [VERB + into]
More Synonyms of descend
descend in British English
(dɪˈsɛnd)
verb(mainly intr)
1. (also tr)
to move, pass, or go down (a hill, slope, staircase, etc)
2.
(of a hill, slope, or path) to lead or extend down; slope; incline
3.
to move to a lower level, pitch, etc; fall
4. (often foll by from)
to be connected by a blood relationship (to a dead or extinct individual, race, species, etc)
5.
to be passed on by parents or ancestors; be inherited
6.
to sink or come down in morals or behaviour; lower oneself
7. (often foll byon or upon)
to arrive or attack in a sudden or overwhelming way
their relatives descended upon them last week
8.
(of the sun, moon, etc) to move towards the horizon
Derived forms
descendable (desˈcendable)
adjective
Word origin
C13: from Old French descendre, from Latin dēscendere, from de- + scandere to climb; see scan
descend in American English
(diˈsɛnd; dɪˈsɛnd)
verb intransitive
1.
to move from a higher to a lower place; come down or go down
2.
to pass from an earlier to a later time, from greater to less, from general to particular, etc.
3.
to slope or extend downward
4.
to come down (from a source, as from an ancestor)
usually with auxiliary be
he is descended from pioneers
5.
to pass by inheritance or heredity
the estate descended to the nephew
6.
to lower oneself or stoop (to some act)
7.
to make a sudden attack, raid, or visit (on or upon)
8. Astronomy
to move toward the horizon
9. Music
to move down the scale
verb transitive
10.
to move, step, or pass down or down along
Derived forms
descendible (deˈscendible)
adjective
Word origin
ME descenden < OFr descendre < L descendere, to climb down, fall < de-, down + scandere, to climb < ? IE base *skend-, *skand-, to leap > Gr skandalon (> scandal), Sans Skandati, (he) leaps
Examples of 'descend' in a sentence
descend
After each airstrike, people descend on rubble searching for wood.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
These people just descended into this kind of class envy mania.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
And many of us will be descended from people who fought there.
The Sun (2015)
Now you may descend the spiral staircase to find a golf simulator instead.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Is there a correct side on which to climb or descend a staircase?
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
People would descend on the house.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
About 3,000 people descended upon the venue for the official party.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
As you near the final square, you descend through a staircase and pass down through a stone tunnel.
Christianity Today (2000)
We are told that we have an obesity epidemic, as if it were some weird disease which has descended upon people.
The Sun (2014)
A long, sultry heat descends on the hills.
Jack Turner SPICE: The History of a Temptation (2004)
People descend and spend their money, but it doesn't stay in the local economy.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
But underneath there are three huge floors of basement, accessed by a descending spiral staircase that drops past an astonishingly beautiful sheet of underground rock.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
Around it are lawns so peaceful you would scarcely know that 70,000 people are descending on an arena barely 200 yards away.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
In other languages
descend
British English: descend /dɪˈsɛnd/ VERB
If you descend, or if you descend something, you move downwards.