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." "We will here descend to matters of later date."
2.To enter mentally; to retire. (Poetic) "(He) with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended."
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."
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.
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