Descend \De*scend"\, v. i. [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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Descending \De*scend"ing\, a. Of or pertaining to descent; moving downwards.

Descending constellations or 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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)