All 5 Uses of
descend
in
A Great and Terrible Beauty
- Ann has stayed behind to practice her aria for Assembly Day—the day when our families will descend upon Spence and see what marvels of womanhood we're becoming.
Chpt 20 *descend = come
- As if on cue, two girls descend the stairs and join us.†
Chpt 7
- Descended from the Yorks.†
Chpt 13
- At my mother's name, an embarrassed quiet descends.†
Chpt 26 *
- "Circe," she says, descending the stairs, her shadow just ahead of her.†
Chpt 30
Definitions:
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(1)
(descend as in: descend the mountain) move or slope downward
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(2)
(descend as in: in descending order) move down a scale -- as from larger numbers to smaller, or higher notes to lower
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(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
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(4)
(descend as in: descend into poverty) figuratively, to move downward to a worse or less prestigious situation
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(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
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(6)
(descend as in: thieves descended upon us) to come or arrive -- especially suddenly or from above or as an attack