- 1[intransitive, transitive] (formal) to come or go down from a higher to a lower level The plane began to descend. The results, ranked in descending order (= from the highest to the lowest) are as follows… descend something She descended the stairs slowly. opposite ascend Oxford Collocations Dictionary adverbquickly, rapidly, slowly, … See full entry
- 2[intransitive] (formal) (of a hill, etc.) to slope downwards At this point the path descends steeply. opposite ascend Oxford Collocations Dictionary adverbsteeply, gently, gradually, … prepositioninto, to phrasesdescend into chaos, descend into farce, descend into madness, … See full entry
- 3[intransitive] (literary) (of night, darkness, a mood, etc.) to arrive and begin to affect somebody/something synonym fall Night descends quickly in the tropics. descend on/upon somebody/something Calm descended on the crowd. Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French descendre, from Latin descendere, from de- ‘down’ + scandere ‘to climb’. Phrasal Verbsbe descended fromdescend intodescend ondescend to
descend
verbBrE BrE//dɪˈsend//; NAmE NAmE//dɪˈsend//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they descend BrE BrE//dɪˈsend//; NAmE NAmE//dɪˈsend//
he / she / it descends BrE BrE//dɪˈsendz//; NAmE NAmE//dɪˈsendz//
past simple descended BrE BrE//dɪˈsendɪd//; NAmE NAmE//dɪˈsendɪd//
past participle descended BrE BrE//dɪˈsendɪd//; NAmE NAmE//dɪˈsendɪd//
-ing form descending BrE BrE//dɪˈsendɪŋ//; NAmE NAmE//dɪˈsendɪŋ//
Check pronunciation: descend
