Sample Sentences for
descend
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

descend as in:  descend the mountain

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She saw him as he was descending the stairs.
    descending = going down
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    Jack and Jill went up the hill, and then they descended.
    descended = went down
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    At least once a day, Hans Hubermann would descend the basement steps and share a conversation.  (source)
    descend = move down
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Show 10 more with 7 word variations
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    Wearing his new sandals, he descended the stairs silently.  (source)
    descended = walked down
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    At first we saw nothing but a kudzu-covered front porch, but a closer inspection revealed an arc of water descending from the leaves and splashing in the yellow circle of the street light, some ten feet from source to earth, it seemed to us.  (source)
    descending = moving downward
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    To descend into the confines of the canyon, however, is to arrive in another world.  (source)
    descend = move downward
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    Down goes Veruca! Down the drain! And here, perhaps, we should explain That she will meet, as she descends, A rather different set of friends  (source)
    descends = moves downward
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    That beard, the truth of all truths, proceedeth from the place of the ears, and descendeth around the mouth of the Holy One; and descendeth and ascendeth, covering the cheeks which are called the places of copious fragrance; it is white with ornament: and it descendeth in the equilibrium of balanced power, and furnisheth a covering even unto the midst of the breast.†  (source)
    standard suffix: Today, the suffix "-eth" is replaced by "-s", so that where they said "She descendeth" in older English, today we say "She descends."
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    In these circumstances there is a total dissimilitude between HIM and a king of Great Britain, who is an HEREDITARY monarch, possessing the crown as a patrimony descendible to his heirs forever; but there is a close analogy between HIM and a governor of New York, who is elected for THREE years, and is re-eligible without limitation or intermission.†  (source)
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    …is no other one but one now, one, going now, rising now, sailing now, leaving now, wheeling now, soaring now, away now, all the way now, all of all the way now; one and one is one, is one, is one, is one, is still one, is still one, is one descendingly, is one softly, is one longingly, is one kindly, is one happily, is one in goodness, is one to cherish, is one now on earth with elbows against the cut and slept-on branches of the pine tree with the smell of the pine boughs and the…  (source)
    descendingly = in a manner that moves downward
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    We nodded as she slowly descended the stairs.  (source)
    descended = came down
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    Slowly the great creature turned around so that the shadow was behind them, so that they saw only the stars unobscured, the soft throb of starlight on the mountain, the descending circle of the great moon swiftly slipping over the horizon.  (source)
    descending = moving down
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    The road began to descend, and Mike Bowman concentrated on driving.  (source)
    descend = slope downward
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descend as in:  in descending order

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    The three largest countries in descending order are Russia, Canada, and the United States.
    descending = larger to smaller
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    Print one list by name in alphabetical order and another by amount contributed in descending order.
    descending = moving from larger numbers to smaller numbers
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    They seemed to be numbered in descending order.  (source)
    descending = moving downward from larger to smaller numbers
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Show 4 more with 2 word variations
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    Very slowly, "Oh, Ford, Ford, Ford," it said diminishingly and on a descending scale.  (source)
    descending = moving downward in lowness of pitch
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    For the office of the dead they adopt a tone so low that the voices of women can hardly descend to such a depth.  (source)
    descend = move lower
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    The ballot itself was a long, narrow piece of paper with the parties listed in descending order to the left, and then the symbol of the party and a picture of its leader to the right.  (source)
    descending = from largest to smallest (probably from the party with the most members to the one with the least members)
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    And when you're a man who is variously described as dutiful, deferential, obsequious, slavish and brown-nosingly corrupt, in descending order of distinction, you need to make a show of character now and then.  (source)
    descending = moving downward on a scale from most to least distinct
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descend as in:  descend from royalty

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    I descended from Armenian immigrants.
    descended = came from (had as ancestors)
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    It is a tradition descending from an over-1000-year-old religious practice.
    descending = coming from (in the past)
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    She concludes that all mammalian species are likely descended from a common ancestor.
    descended = came from (evolved from)
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    Do you believe we're descended from apes?  (source)
    descended = evolved
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    Well, they have a queen, like Attolia, so the throne can't descend only in the male line.  (source)
    descend = pass onward
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    It was at her soirees in this house that Anna mastered the ancient art of descending a staircase.  (source)
    descending = originating or coming from
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    The tribal lineage descends from the father's side, the male ancestors.  (source)
    descends = comes (genetically)
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    Like every other animal on this planet, we're descended from a single-celled organism that lived millions of years ago.  (source)
    descended = evolved from
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    Some people believe that the Pashtuns descend from one of the lost tribes of Israel, and my father said, "It is as though we are the Israelites leaving Egypt, but we have no Moses to guide us."  (source)
    descend = come genetically
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    I remembered Randolph telling me something about that—how the Chase family was descended from ancient Swedish royalty, blah, blah, blah.  (source)
    descended = genetically
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    The builders did not know the uses to which their work would descend;  (source)
    descend = originate or come from
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    A third layer of nativeness was composed of those who others thought directly descended, even in the tiniest fraction of their genes, from the human beings who had been brought from Africa to this continent centuries ago as slaves.  (source)
    descended = come from (genetically)
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    He thought it eccentric of Lancelot, to say the least, to lose his reason over a lover's tiff—and he wanted to find out, by looking up the Ban genealogy, whether there had been a streak of lunacy in the family which could account for it. If there were, it might descend on Galahad.  (source)
    descend = pass (genetically)
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descend as in:  descend into poverty

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    I will not descend to hurling insults in return.
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    The country descended into chaos.
    descended = move downward (figuratively) to a worse condition
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    She predicts the country will descend into anarchy.
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
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    Once again in his tormenter's clutches, Louie descended back into a state of profound stress.  (source)
    descended = moved (to a lower or less good condition)
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    Shawn said it was time to mount, and I climbed onto the barn roof, sure the corral would descend into violence.  (source)
    descend = figuratively, move downward to a worse situation
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    Felt myself slipping, but even that's a metaphor. Descending, but that is, too. Can't describe the feeling itself except to say that I'm not me.  (source)
    Descending = moving to a worse situation
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    That night the electricity went out, cut off by the authorities, and Kensington and Chelsea descended into darkness.  (source)
    descended = transformed (to a lower or less good condition)
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    All approach as near to it as they can; some as they rise, others as they descend.  (source)
    descend = move downward (figuratively) to a worse or less prestigious situation
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    While Fantine had been slowly descending from wretchedness to wretchedness, her native town had prospered.  (source)
    descending = moving to a worse situation
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    To see me now, Thomasin, gives you no idea of what I have been; of what depths I have descended to in these few last days.  (source)
    descended = moved to a lower or less good condition
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    Having descended into proper madness, I begin to make the connections that crack open the long-dormant case of Russell Pickett's disappearance.  (source)
    descended = moved (to a lower or less good condition)
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    Had this rough and unlettered man gathered a perfectly clear perception of the succession of ideas through which he had, by degrees, mounted and descended to the lugubrious aspects which had, for so many years, formed the inner horizon of his spirit?  (source)
    descended = moved to a lower or less good condition
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    The lower she descended, the darker everything grew about her, the more radiant shone that little angel at the bottom of her heart.  (source)
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descend as in:  descend into deeper thought

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    The problem became much clearer when my investigation descended into details.
    descended = moved from the more general to the more specific
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    Our conversation descended from philosophical goals to political maneuvering.
    descended = moved from more general to more specific
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    You're going to need to descend the abstraction ladder to explain that to me.
    descend = move from more general to more specific
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Show 3 more with 2 word variations
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    Diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought. It seemed to him, that, after having descended into these depths, after having long groped among the darkest of these shadows, he had at last found one of these diamonds, one of these truths, and that he now held it in his hand, and he was dazzled as he gazed upon it.  (source)
    descended = thought more deeply
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    Did he descend to any details?  (source)
    descend = move from the more general to the more specific
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    ... if, after having established the general principles of government, it descended to the details of public business;  (source)
    descended = moved from the more general to the more specific
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descend as in:  thieves descended upon us

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    A feeling of hopelessness descended upon us.
    descended = came
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    A seriousness descended on the crowd.
    descended = came suddenly
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    We're going to need at least five battalions of those people before the Sardaukar descend on us.  (source)
    descend = come suddenly
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    But the cedar waxwings didn't just descend on the tree willy-nilly.  (source)
    descend = come from above
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    At last the term ended, and a silence deep as the snow on the grounds descended on the castle.  (source)
    descended = came or arrived
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    Walking back to the school grounds from the railroad station in the descending darkness we overtook a lone figure sliding along the snow-covered edge of the street.  (source)
    descending = arriving
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    The remainder of the afternoon went by in the gentle gloom that descends when relatives appear, but was dispelled when we heard a car turn in the driveway.  (source)
    descends = arrives
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    But really, I'm sure it was because she loved throwing a little end-of-the-year party for her bees, seeing them descend on the supers like they'd discovered honey heaven.  (source)
    descend = come
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    This was the second time this morning that her uncle's wrath had descended on her head.  (source)
    descended = come down (arrived suddenly)
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    The shadows were descending around Jean Valjean.  (source)
    descending = arriving
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    Night descends; he has been swimming for hours; his strength is exhausted; that ship, that distant thing in which there were men, has vanished; he is alone in the formidable twilight gulf; he sinks, he stiffens himself, he twists himself; he feels under him the monstrous billows of the invisible; he shouts.  (source)
    descends = arrives
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    Another pledge to myself: once I became a god again, I would descend upon this camp and take away all their horns.  (source)
    descend = attack
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    A long silence descended over the room.  (source)
    descended = came
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