King James Bible Dictionary

ASCEND', verb intransitive [Latin ascendo, from scando, to mount or climb.]

1. To move upwards; to mount; to go up; to rise, whether in air or water, or upon a material object.

2. To rise, in a figurative sense; to proceed from an inferior to a superior degree, from mean to noble objects, from particulars to generals, etc.

3. To proceed from modern to ancient times; to recur to former ages; as, our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity.

4. In a corresponding sense, to proceed in a line towards ancestors; as, to ascend to our first progenitors.

5. To rise as a star; to proceed or come above the horizon.

6. In music, to rise in vocal utterance; to pass from any note to one more acute.

ASCEND', verb transitive To go or move upwards upon, as to ascend a hill or ladder; or to climb, as to ascend a tree.

ASCEND'ABLE, adjective That may be ascended.

ASCEND'ANT, noun

1. Superiority or commanding influence; as, one man has the ascendant over another.

2. An ancestor, or one who precedes in genealogy, or degrees of kindred; opposed to descendant.

3. Height; elevation. [Little used.]

4. In astrology, that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the time of one's birth. That part of the ecliptic at any particular time above the horizon, supposed to have influence on a person's life and fortune.

ASCEND'ANT, adjective

1. Superior; predominant; surpassing.

2. In astrology, above the horizon.

ASCEND'ED, participle passive or adjective Risen; mounted up; gone to heaven.

ASCEND'ENCY, noun Power; governing or controlling influence.

Custom has an ascendency over the understanding.

ASCEND'ING, participle present tense Rising; moving upwards; proceeding from the less to the greater; proceeding from modern to ancient, from grave to more acute. A star is said to be ascending when rising above the horizon, in any parallel of the equator.

Ascending latitude is the latitude of a planet, when moving towards the North pole.

Ascending node is that point of a planet's orbit, wherein it passes the ecliptic to proceed northward. It is also called the northern node.

Ascending vessels, in anatomy, are those which carry the blood upward or toward the superior parts of the body.