From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdescendde‧scend /dɪˈsend/ ●●○ verb 1 [intransitive, transitive] formalDOWN to move from a higher level to a lower one OPP ascend → descent Our plane started to descend. I heard his footsteps descending the stairs.descend to/from/into etc The path continues for some way before descending to Garsdale Head.RegisterIn everyday English, people usually say go down or come down rather than descend:They went down into the lobby.I heard his footsteps coming down the stairs.2 [intransitive] literaryTMC if darkness, silence, a feeling etc descends, it becomes dark etc or you start to feel something, especially suddenlydescend on/upon/over Total silence descended on the room. An air of gloom descended over the party headquarters.3 → in descending order (of something) → descend from somebody/something → descend on/upon somebody/something → descend to something→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
descend• The plane started to descend.• On shaking legs he began to descend.• Having finished, she descends a little way down the twig and then lays another batch.• The cave descends almost vertically through a maze of boulders from a collapsed roof and is extremely wet and muddy.• The reflex action at this point is to descend into cynicism.• We descended into the cave by a rope ladder.• A Darkfall storm had descended on a factory in Leeds four years earlier.• When Stafford saw Cantor move slowly toward the right, he descended on the opposite side.• Slowly the two climbers descended the cliff face.• Several climbers were descending the mountain.• This circuitous approach gives jets lots of time to descend to the airport.• As you descend, you will slowly begin to feel the mystery and dankness of Carlsbad.descend to/from/into etc• Not that Luke Hunter would ever descend to anything as crude as rape.• As the cylinder descends into deeper air, axial stress increases until elastic failure occurs.• All Gauls claimed to be descended from him.• If you believe in evolution, you believe man is descended from primates, and primates are vegetarian.• Hence the expansion of dictionary definitions descends into progressive generality, displaying a weaker and weaker semantic relationship with the original word.• Behind him, the lift shuddered and began to descend to the ground floor.• Running the length of the forward strut was a ladder for the astronauts to descend from the top porch to the surface.descend on/upon/over• Long before night fell, serious parade lovers were descending on downtown to get a good seat.• Placed in charge, Taylor had written to vendors, requesting catalogs and price lists, and now they descended upon him.• Jesse Jackson descended upon Hollywood to protest the almost total absence of black and minority nominees.• As a result, a heavy dose of reality has descended on the Buchanan campaign.• Investigators descend on the crime scene hunting for clues.• This they had done when they descended on the genteel town of Winchelsea.• Almost immediately, a heatwave descends on the rest of Britain.• In this way, the children became spread out instead of all clustering together with the coins descending on them like hailstones.Origin descend (1300-1400) Old French descendre, from Latin scandere “to climb” 