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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Descend \De*scend"\, verb (used without an object) [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 The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Descending \De*scend"ing\, adjective Of or pertaining to descent; moving downwards.
{Descending constellations} or {Descending 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) 2.0 [wn]:
descending
adjective: coming down or downward [syn: {descending(a)}] [ant: {ascending(a)}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
64 Moby Thesaurus words for "descending": ascending, axial, back, back-flowing, backward, collapsing, deciduous, declined, declining, declivate, declivitous, declivous, decurrent, descendant, dipping, down, down-reaching, down-trending, downcoming, downfalling, downgoing, downgrade, downhill, downsinking, downward, drifting, drooping, dropping, falling, flowing, fluent, flying, going, gyrational, gyratory, mounting, on the descendant, on the downgrade, passing, plummeting, plunging, progressive, reflowing, refluent, regressive, retrogressive, rising, rotary, rotational, rotatory, running, rushing, sagging, setting, sideward, sinking, soaring, streaming, submerging, subsiding, tottering, tumbledown, up-trending, upward
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