All 6 Uses

descend
in
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
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Most people who live here are descended from the Yao ethnic tribe.†
Chpt 2
Everyone knows that part of the spirit descends to the afterworld, while part of it remains with the family, but we have a special belief about the spirit of a young woman who has died before her marriage that goes contrary to this.†
Chpt 9
She slowly descended, stopping to sit by her mother.†
Chpt 11
By now I understood the old instruction: "Ascend the bed, act like a husband; descend the bed, act like a gentleman."†
Chpt 13
I preferred my husband when he descended the bed.†
Chpt 13
The last thing I heard before the death spirits descended on us was that Snow Flower was pregnant again.†
Chpt 14 *

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
(7) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)