Descent
[dɪ'sent] or [dɪ'sɛnt]
Definition
(noun.) the act of changing your location in a downward direction.
(noun.) a movement downward.
(noun.) a downward slope or bend.
(noun.) the kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors.
Typist: Phil--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower.
(n.) Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; -- often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy.
(n.) 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.
(n.) Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction.
(n.) Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity.
(n.) Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent.
(n.) That which is descended; descendants; issue.
(n.) A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation.
(n.) Lowest place; extreme downward place.
(n.) A passing from a higher to a lower tone.
Edited by Dorothy
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Fall.[2]. Declivity, slope.[3]. Extraction, derivation, parentage.[4]. Attack, assault, incursion, foray, raid, hostile invasion.
Edited by Angelina
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See DESCEND]
Typed by Clint
Examples
- By turning the wheel any type can be brought to the front, and a stationary guide controls its descent as it makes the impression. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- And it is now well known that he attributes this coincidence to descent with modification. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Turning to geographical distribution, the difficulties encountered on the theory of descent with modification are serious enough. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- I heard of the division of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty; of rank, descent, and noble blood. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- The descent of the mountain was a labor of only four minutes. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- As we have no written pedigrees, we are forced to trace community of descent by resemblances of any kind. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Mr. Bucket, breaking off, has made a noiseless descent upon mademoiselle and laid his heavy hand upon her shoulder. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The real affinities of all organic beings, in contradistinction to their adaptive resemblances, are due to inheritance or community of descent. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- The term variety is almost equally difficult to define; but here community of descent is almost universally implied, though it can rarely be proved. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Facing Huxley with a smiling insolence, he begged to know, _was it through his grandfather or grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey_? H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The fifth compartment represents the clown as having jumped over pantaloon's head, and coming down to the ground; and in each succeeding division his farther descent is shown, till, in No. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- You will have plenty of time to look at them again, he said as they resumed their descent, but at present I have plenty to show you. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- See you not the thunderbolt fall, and are deafened by the shout of heaven that follows its descent? Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- By and by he made another descent upon us with the same inquiry, and the same result. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- How young Woolwich cleans the drum-sticks without being of ostrich descent, his anxious mother is at a loss to understand. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Hence the public has the right of regulating descents, and all other conveyances of property, and even of limiting the quantity and the uses of it. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- With his boat, the Nautilus, he made numerous descents, going down twenty-five feet in the harbor of Brest and remaining there an hour. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
Typed by Ferris