Descent /(?)/

De·scent

Descent

n.
  1. The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower.
  2. Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; -- often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy.
    The United Provinces . . . ordered public prayer to God, when they feared that the French and English fleets would make a descent upon their coasts.
    — Jortin.
  3. Progress downward, as in station, virtue, as in station, virtue, and the like, from a higher to a lower state, from a higher to a lower state, from the more to the less important, from the better to the worse, etc.
  4. Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction.
  5. Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity. (Law)
  6. Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent.
  7. That which is descended; descendants; issue.
    If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain woe.
  8. A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation.
    No man living is a thousand descents removed from Adam himself.
  9. Lowest place; extreme downward place. [R.]
  10. A passing from a higher to a lower tone. (Mus.)