Descent — Defs

01 n. The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower.

1.
The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower.
2.
Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; -- often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy.
“The United Provinces . . . ordered public prayer to God, when they feared that the French and English fleets would make a descent upon their coasts.” — Jortin.
3.
Progress downward, as in station, virtue, as in station, virtue, and the like, from a higher to a lower state, from a higher to a lower state, from the more to the less important, from the better to the worse, etc.
4.
Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction.
5.
Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity.(Law)
6.
Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent.
7.
That which is descended; descendants; issue.
“If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain woe.” — Milton.
8.
A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation.
“No man living is a thousand descents removed from Adam himself.” — Hooker.
9.
Lowest place; extreme downward place.[R.]
10.
A passing from a higher to a lower tone.(Mus.)