Definitions for: Descent


[n] the act of changing your location in a downward direction
[n] properties attributable to your ancestry; "he comes from good origins"
[n] a movement downward
[n] the descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has been warriors"
[n] a downward slope or bend
[n] the kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors



Webster (1913) Definition: De*scent", n. [F. descente, fr. descendre; like vente,
from vendre. See Descend.]
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.

2. Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation;
lineage; birth; extraction. --Dryden.

5. (Law) Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually,
but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to
inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity. --Abbott.

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.]

And from the extremest upward of thy head, To the
descent and dust below thy foot. --Shak.

10. (Mus.) A passing from a higher to a lower tone.

Syn: Declivity; slope; degradation; extraction; lineage;
assault; invasion; attack.

Synonyms: ancestry, blood, blood line, bloodline, declension, declination, decline, declivity, downslope, extraction, fall, filiation, line, line of descent, line of descent, lineage, lineage, origin, origin, parentage, pedigree, stock

Antonyms: acclivity, ascent, climb, raise, rise, upgrade

See Also: abseil, ancestry, bilateral descent, breed, cascade, change of location, collapse, crash dive, derivation, dive, downhill, drop, drop, fall, family, family line, family relationship, family tree, filiation, flop, folk, full blood, genealogy, incline, jump, kinfolk, kinsfolk, kinship, lightening, lineage, motion, move, movement, nose dive, parachuting, phratry, relationship, sept, set, shower, side, side, sinking, slide, slope, steep, swoop, travel, unilateral descent

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