Definition of descent

• n. - The act of descending, or passing downward; change of place from higher to lower.
• n. - Incursion; sudden attack; especially, hostile invasion from sea; -- often followed by upon or on; as, to make a descent upon the enemy.
• n. - 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.
• n. - Derivation, as from an ancestor; procedure by generation; lineage; birth; extraction.
• n. - Transmission of an estate by inheritance, usually, but not necessarily, in the descending line; title to inherit an estate by reason of consanguinity.
• n. - Inclination downward; a descending way; inclined or sloping surface; declivity; slope; as, a steep descent.
• n. - That which is descended; descendants; issue.
• n. - A step or remove downward in any scale of gradation; a degree in the scale of genealogy; a generation.
• n. - Lowest place; extreme downward place.
• n. - A passing from a higher to a lower tone.