ascend, assend

i. & t. [In Sp. as cender; Ital. ascendere; Lat. ascendo; from ad to, and scan do = to climb.] A. Intransitive : I. Ordinary Language: 1. Lit .: To move from a lower to a higher place. It is opposed to descend (q.v.). (a) Of animated beings: To climb up, or even without actual climbing to move from a lower to a higher elevation. and a endyt to hevyne." The Craft of Deyng (ed. Lumby), 227. behold the angels of God ascending and descending upon it [the ladder]"- Gen. xxviii. 12. It is often followed by up. "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, John iii. 13. ." (b) Of things: To go up, as smoke or vapour does by the operation of the law of gravity, or as any material substance goes up without actual climbing. "... the curling smoke ascends." Words worth: Excursion, bk. v. "The piston either ascended or descended."-Smith: Wealth of Nations , bk. i., ch. i. 2. Figuratively: (a) To proceed from recent to remote times, or trace back a course of development. they boast Their noble birth, conduct us to the tombs Of their forefathers, and, from age to age Ascending, triumph their illustrious race." Cowper: Transl. of Greek Verses on Pedigree. (b) To mount up from what is materially feeble to what is materially strong, or from what is morally or intellectually low to that which is in these respects higher. "As when the winds, ascending by degrees, First move the whitening surface of the seas." Pope : Homer's Iliad, bk. iv. 478-9. (c) To proceed from particulars to a more or le wide generalisation, or from trifling matters to matters of greater moment. "By these steps we shall ascend to more just ideas of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is intimately united to God, and is one with Him."- Watts : Impr. of Mind. IL Technically : 1. Astron.: Τo rise higher above the horizon, and proceed more or le directly towards the zenith. 2. Music: To pa from a lower to a higher note. B. Trans.: To climb or move into, on, or upon, from a lower place. " Ascend thy car, And save a life, the bulwark of our war." Pope: Homer's Iliad , bk. v. 306. "... their galleys ascended the river."- Gibbon : Decl. and Fall , ch. xlii. IMG:content-0785.png:[blocks in formation] 323 as-çend-ěd, *as-çend-id, pa. par. & a [ASCEND.] Brutus goes into the Rostrum. "3 Cit . The noble Brutus is ascended : Silence!" Shakesp. Julius Cæsar, iii. 2 Chaucer: C. T. , 16,843. "For whan degrees fyftene were ascendid ."