DESCEND

To pass by succession; as when the estate vests by operation of law in the heirs immediately upon the death of the ancestor. 128 Mass. 40. See DESCENT AND DISTRIBUTION; DESCENT OF DIGNITIES; DESCENT OF CROWN LANDS; DEVOLVE;

or simply to prove; as, to deraign a right, deraign the warranty.1 Also spelled darraign, darrain. DERELICT.2 abandoned. Relinquished, deserted, Dereliction. The state of being abandoned or cast away; also, the thing itself of which this is predicated. 1. Land left uncovered by the receding of water from its former bed. Sometimes called "reliction." See ALLUVION. 2. Anything thrown away or abandoned with intention to relinquish claim of ownership thereto. In the civil law the voluntary abandonment of goods by the owner, without the hope or purpose of returning to the possession.4 Dereliction or renunciation of goods requires both the intention to abandon and external action.5 The right of appropriating a derelict is one of universal law. It existed in a state of nature, and is only modified by society, according to the discretion of each community. See ABANDON, 1. 3. Specifically, maritime property entirely deserted. It is sufficient that the thing is found deserted or abandoned upon the seas, whether it arose from accident or necessity, or voluntary dereliction. A thing was not derelict in the civil law unless the owner voluntarily abandoned it without any further claim of property in it.7 The abandonment must be final, without hope of recovery or intention to return. It is not sufficient that the crew have left temporarily, as, to procure assistance.8 A case of "quasi-derelict" occurs when the vessel is not abandoned, but those on board are physically and mentally incapable of doing anything for their safety. See SALVAGE. Sometimes, to pass by descent or inheritance" or "be inherited by," thereby expressing in a single term what otherwise might require a circumlocution. When so used, in statutes, it is usually accompanied by other words which prevent ambiguity: as, "descend to his father," "to his mother," "to his next of kin;" but in these cases these terms so qualify the word "descend" as to give it the effect of “ pass by inheritance" to the person named or described. In a will the word cannot be construed to include any but lineal heirs, without clear indication that it was otherwise intended by the testator.8 Ordinarily, for an estate to vest by operation of law in the heirs, immediately upon the death of the ancestor.9 In a will, does not work a descent in the strict legal sense, as inheritance is through operation of law. It indicates, presumably, a desire that property shall follow the channel into which the law would direct it. 10 May import devolution by force of the devise made, rather than descent in the legal sense; that is, "to go down." 11 Descendant. One who has issued from an individual, including a child, a grandchild, and their children to the remotest degree. 12 Correlative, ancestor, q. v. Often synonymous with "heir." 13 "Descendants" includes every person descended from the stock referred to, is co-extensive with "issue," but not as comprehensive as "relatives; " 14 11 Shars. Bl. Com. 87. 2 Mitchell v. St. Maxent's Lessee, 4 Wall. 243 (1866); 101 U. S. 565. 356 Pa. 21. 4 Ross v. Jones, 22 Wall. 591 (1874). Tucker v. Ferguson, 22 Wall. 575 (1874). 61 Burr. 613; 4 Bl. Com. 280; 2 Kent, 73. L. de-scendere, to pass down. * Baker v. Baker, 8 Gray, 119, 120 (1857), Shaw, C. J.; McDowell v. Addams, 45 Pa. 434 (1863). • [Dove v. Torr, 128 Mass. 40 (1879), Gray, C. J. 10 Halstead v. Hall, 60 Md. 213 (1883); Dennett v. Dennett, 40 N. Η. 498 (1860). 11 Ballentine v. Wood, 42 N. J. E. 558 (1886). 12 Jewell v. Jewell, 28 Cal. 236 (1865): Bouvier. 13 Huston v. Read, 32 N. J. E. 599 (1880). 14 Barstow v. Goodwin, 2 Bradf. 416 (1853). DESCRIPΤΙΟ nor does it embrace "brothers and sisters; "1 has not the same signification that "heirs of the body" has, and may be used by a testator as synonymous with "children." 2 descent, up to whose time they had continued the same some four hundred years, to this series of "canons." Material alteration was not again made in them till 1833, -by stat. 3 and 4 Will. IV, c. 106 Descent. Passing downward; hereditary (amended in 1859 by 22 and 23 Vict., c. 35, ss. 19, 20). succession. Hereditary succession to an estate in realty. The title whereby a man on the death of his ancestor acquires his estate by right of representation as his heir at law. See HEIR. Lineal descent. Descent from father or grandfather to son or grandson; or from mother to daughter, etc. Collateral descent. From brother to brother, cousin to cousin, etc. Mediate, immediate descent. A descent may be mediate or immediate in regard to the mediate or immediate descent of the estate of right, or the mediateness or immediateness of the pedigrees or degrees of consanguinity.4 A descent from a parent to a child cannot be construed to mean a descent through and not from a parent. When an estate is said to have descended from A to B, the obvious meaning is that it is an immediate descent from A to B. "Come by descent" means by immediate descent.5 Canons of descent. The rules which regulate the descent of real estates of inheritance; the rules according to which estates are transmitted from ancestor to heir. At common law these canons are: I. An inheritance lineally descends to the issue of the person who last died actually seised, in infinitum, and never lineally ascends.

[Lat. descendere; L. Fr. de

To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, as by falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to plunge; to fall; to incline downward; -- the opposite of ascend. The rain descended, and the floods came. Matt. vii. 25. We will here descend to matters of later date. Fuller. To enter mentally; to retire. [Poetic] [He] with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended. Milton. To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence; -- with on or upon. And on the suitors let thy wrath descend. Pope. To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or station; to lower or abase one's self; as, he descended from his high estate. To pass from the more general or important to the particular or less important matters to be considered. To come down, as from a source, original, or stock; to be derived; to proceed by generation or by transmission; to fall or pass by inheritance; as, the beggar may descend from a prince; a crown descends to the heir. To move toward the south, or to the southward. To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.

To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of; as, they descended the river in boats; to descend a ladder. But never tears his cheek descended. Byron.

Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something, such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a hill, a slope, etc.). | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To move (someone or something) from a higher to a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink. | Of a zodiac sign: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, of a planet: to move to a place where it has less astrological significance. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink. | Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink. | Of a body part: to move downwards, especially during development of the embryo; specifically, of the testes of a mammal: to move downwards from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink. | Of a liquid substance: to distil out from another substance and gather at the bottom of a container; also, to distil a substance to obtain another liquid substance in this manner. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To slope or stretch downwards. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To alight from a carriage, a horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | Of a physical thing (such as a cloud or storm) or a (generally negative) immaterial thing (such as darkness, gloom, or silence): to settle upon and start to affect a person or place. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | In speech or writing: to proceed from one matter to another; especially, to pass from more general or important to specific or less important matters to be considered. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | Chiefly followed by into or to: of a situation: to become worse; to decline, to deteriorate. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | Chiefly followed by on or upon: to make an attack or incursion, from or as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | Chiefly followed by on or upon: to arrive suddenly or unexpectedly, especially in a manner that causes disruption or inconvenience. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To come down to a humbler or less fortunate, or a worse or less virtuous, rank or state; to abase or lower oneself; to condescend or stoop to something. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | Chiefly in the form descend into (or within) oneself: to mentally enter a state of (deep) meditation or thought; to retire. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | Of a sequence or series: to proceed from higher to lower values. | Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position. | To pass from a higher to a lower note or tone; to fall in pitch. | Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing. | To trace (a lineage) from earlier to later generations. | Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing. | Of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a parent to a child. | Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing. | Chiefly followed by from or (obsolete) of: to come down or derive from an ancestor or ancestral stock, or a source; to originate, to stem. | Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing. | Of property, a right, etc.: to pass down to a generation, a person, etc., by inheritance.

Synonym of descent (“instance of descending; sloping incline or passage; way down; decline, etc.”).