All 16 Uses of

descend

in

Frankenstein - 1831 version

...when at morning's dawn I descended to the carriage which was to convey me away, they were all there—my father again to bless me, Clerval to press my hand once more, my Elizabeth to renew her entreaties that I would write often and to bestow the last feminine attentions on her playmate and friend.
p. 46.4

descended = went down

Presently a breeze dissipated the cloud, and I descended upon the glacier.
p. 101.3

descended = came suddenly

The surface is very uneven, rising like the waves of a troubled sea, descending low, and interspersed by rifts that sink deep.
p. 101.3

descending = sloping downward

The sun is yet high in the heavens; before it descends to hide itself behind your snowy precipices and illuminate another world, you will have heard my story and can decide.
p. 104.5 *

descends = moves downward

The air was cold, and the rain again began to descend; we entered the hut, the fiend with an air of exultation, I with a heavy heart and depressed spirits.
p. 104.9

descend = fall

I walked and, I believe, descended, but I presently found a great alteration in my sensations.
p. 105.4

descended = moved downward

He was descended from a good family in France, where he had lived for many years in affluence, respected by his superiors and beloved by his equals.
p. 125.2 *

descended = came from (as through genetics)

I saw him descend the mountain with greater speed than the flight of an eagle, and quickly lost among the undulations of the sea of ice.
p. 150.9

descend = move down

We had agreed to descend the Rhine in a boat from Strasbourg to Rotterdam, whence we might take shipping for London.
p. 160.1

The river descends rapidly and winds between hills, not high, but steep, and of beautiful forms.
p. 160.2

descends = moves downward

I have visited the lakes of Lucerne and Uri, where the snowy mountains descend almost perpendicularly to the water,
p. 160.7

descend = slope downward

Beyond Cologne we descended to the plains of Holland; and we resolved to post the remainder of our way, for the wind was contrary and the stream of the river was too gentle to aid us.
p. 162.3

descended = moved downward

The sun had far descended, and I still sat on the shore, satisfying my appetite, which had become ravenous, with an oaten cake, when I saw a fishing-boat land close to me, and one of the men brought me a packet; it contained letters from Geneva, and one from Clerval entreating me to join him.
p. 174.6

The moon had reached her summit in the heavens and was beginning to descend; the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture and dimmed her rays, while the lake reflected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the restless waves that were beginning to rise.
p. 198.3

descend = move downward

The snows descended on my head, and I saw the print of his huge step on the white plain.
p. 207.3

descended = came down

Definitions:

(1) (descend as in: descend the mountain)
move or slope downward
(2) (descend as in: in descending order)
move down a scale -- as from larger numbers to smaller, or higher notes to lower
(3) (descend as in: descend from royalty)
figuratively, to have come down a path from the past; i.e., to originate or come from -- such as in reference to ancestors or evolutionary origins
(4) (descend as in: descend into poverty)
figuratively, to move downward to a worse or less prestigious situation
(5) (descend as in: descend into deeper thought)
to move from a higher level of abstraction downward to a lower one (from more general to more specific); or to move from superficial to deeper thought
(6) (descend as in: thieves descended upon us)
to come or arrive -- especially suddenly or from above or as an attack