Search the Dictionary

A nickname given to a person of Spanish (or, by extension, Portuguese or Italian) descent. [U. S.]

The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope. The declension of the land from that place to the sea. T. Burnet.

r turning aside; oblique motion; obliquity; withdrawal. The declination of atoms in their descent. Bentley. Every declination and violation of the rules. South.

Deviation from a horizontal line; gradual descent of surface; inclination downward; slope; -- opposed to acclivity, or ascent; the same slope, considered as descending, being a declivity, which, considered as ascending, is an acclivity.

les already known. Locke. See what regard will be paid to the pedigree which deduces your descent from kings and conquerors. Sir W. Scott.

A certain distance or remove in the line of descent, determining the proximity of blood; one remove in the chain of relationship; as, a relation in the third or fourth degree. In the 11th century an opinion began to gain ground in Italy, that third cousins might marry, being in the seventh degree according to the civil…

The act of tracing origin or descent, as in grammar or genealogy; as, the derivation of a word from an Aryan root.

To receive, as from a source or origin; to obtain by descent or by transmission; to draw; to deduce; -- followed by from.

Admitting descent; capable of being descended.

Of or pertaining to descent; moving downwards. Descending constellations or signs (Astron.), those through which the planets descent toward the south. -- Descending node (Astron.), that point in a planet's orbit where it intersects the ecliptic in passing southward. -- Descending series (Math.), a series in which eac…

The act of going downward; descent; falling or sinking; declension; degradation. Oblique descension (Astron.), the degree or arc of the equator which descends, with a celestial object, below the horizon of an oblique sphere. -- Right descension, the degree or arc of the equator which descends below the horizon of a ri…

y. Deviation of a falling body (Physics), that deviation from a strictly vertical line of descent which occurs in a body falling freely, in consequence of the rotation of the earth. -- Deviation of the compass, the angle which the needle of a ship's compass makes with the magnetic meridian by reason of the magnetism o…

In the line of descent; not collateral; as, a descendant in the direct line.

sions, properties, or relationship. Community of embryonic structure reveals community of descent; but dissimilarity of embryonic development does not prove discommunity of descent. Darwin.

of any property or right, which, by law or custom, would devolve on him in the course of descent. Of how fair a portion Adam disinherited his whole posterity! South.

A sudden descent from rank or state, reputation or happiness; destruction; ruin. Dire were the consequences which would follow the downfall of so important a place. Motley.

Declivity; descent; slope. On th' icy downhills of this slippery life. Du Bartas (Trans. ).

Descending from a head, origin, or source; as, a downward line of descent.

unty wears, That downward hath descended in his house, From son to son, some four or five descents. Shak.

To shoot (a shaft) so as to pierce on the descent. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.