2. To comment freely; to discourse with fullness and particularity; to discourse at large.
A virtuous man should be pleased to find people descanting on his actions.
Addison. Descanter
(Des*cant"er) n. One who descants.
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.
Descend
(De*scend") v. t. To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of; as, they
descended the river in boats; to descend a ladder.
But never tears his cheek descended.
Byron. Descendant
(De*scend"ant) a. [F. descendant, p. pr. of descendre. Cf. Descendent.] Descendent.
Descendant
(De*scend"ant), n. One who descends, as offspring, however remotely; — correlative to
ancestor or ascendant.
Our first parents and their descendants.
Hale.
The descendant of so many kings and emperors.
Burke. Descendent
(De*scend"ent) a. [L. descendens, -entis, p. pr. of descendre. Cf. Descendant.] Descending; falling; proceeding
from an ancestor or source.
More than mortal grace
Speaks thee descendent of ethereal race.
Pope.
