intransitive verb

1. to move from a higher to a lower place; come down or go down
2. to pass from an earlier to a later time, from greater to less, from general to particular, etc.
3. to slope or extend downward
4. to come down (from a source, as from an ancestor): usually with auxiliary be he is descended from pioneers
5. to pass by inheritance or heredity the estate descended to the nephew
6. to lower oneself or stoop (to some act)
7. to make a sudden attack, raid, or visit (on or upon)
8. Astron. to move toward the horizon
9. Music to move down the scale

Etymology: ME descenden < OFr descendre < L descendere, to climb down, fall < de-, down + scandere, to climb < ? IE base *skend-, *skand-, to leap > Gr skandalon (> scandal), Sans Skandati, (he) leaps

transitive verb