- having a specified ancestry or ethnic origin: She was the only daughter of a wealthy baron and his royally descended wife.
- having gone from a higher place or position to a lower one: The cooled and descended air then travels along the earth’s surface toward the equator to replace air rising from the equatorial zone.He was hailed as some descended godhead on earth—an avatar.
- inherited or transmitted, as through succeeding generations of a family: Early mammals generally possessed claws, and all existing cat species carry that descended trait.
- derived from something in the remote past, especially through continuous transmission: Traditional religions tend to focus on descended practice and ritual rather than on doctrine taught by a religious institution.
- the simple past tense and past participle of descend.
