descensional (desenshonal)

[ Milton , P. L., x. 979. Infinite descents Beneath what other creatures are to thee. Milton, P. L., viii. 410. There were about forty-three degrees of seats, and eleven descents down from the top [of the theater], which are two feet wide, and the uppermost are about fifty-five feet apart; those descents are made by dividing each seat into two steps. Pococke, Description of the East, II. ii. 73. 10t. The lowest place. From the extremest upward of thy head, To the descent and dust beneath thy feet. Shak ., Lear, v. 3. 11. pl. In fort., a hole, vault, or hollow place made by undermining the ground.-12. In music, a pa ing from a higher to a lower pitch. -13. In logic, an inference from a proposition containing a higher term to a proposition containing a lower term. This is also called arguitive descent, in opposition to divisive descent, which is a proposition dividing a genus into its species. - Angle of de descent scent. See angle 3. - Collateral descent, descent from a collateral relative, as from brother or sister, uncle or aunt, -Descent cast, in law, the devolution of an estate in land upon the heir at the death of the ancestor or po e or; descent which has apparently taken effect. The special significance of the term, as contrasted with descent, is in its use to designate the devolution of an estate of inheritance claimed by the heirs of a wrongful po e or. While the wrongful po e or lived, the rightful owner could enter against him. After his death, the right of entry was said to be tolled, or taken away, because not allowable after descent cast.- Descent of bodies, in mech., their motion or tendency toward the center of the earth, either directly or obliquely along inclined planes or curves. The curve of swiftest descent is the cycloid.- Descent of souls, the supposed entrance of preexistent souls into their bodies. Descents into the ditch, cuts and excavations made by means of saps in the counterscarp beneath the covered way. Wilhelm, Mil. Dict. - Distillation by descent, in chem., a mode of distillation in which fire was applied at the top and around the ve el, whose orifice was at the bottom, by which means the vapors were made to distil downward. - In descent, in her., in the act or attitude of descending: thus, a lion in descent is one represented with the hind legs in one corner of the chief, and the head and fore paws in the diagonally opposite corner of the base. - Lineal descent, descent from father to son, through succe ive generations. = Syn. 2. Gradient, grade.-3. Debasement.-4. Foray, raid.-6. Generation, parentage, derivation.