Dictionary entry

Ascend

Webster's Dictionary 1913

As‐cend″ (�), v. i. [imp. & p. p.Ascended; p. pr. & vb. n.Ascending.] [L. ascendere; ad + scandere to climb, mount. See Scan.] 1. To move upward; to mount; to go up; to rise; — opposed to descend.

Higher yet that star ascends.

Bowring.

I ascend unto my father and your father.

John xx. 17.

Formerly used with up.

The smoke of it ascended up to heaven.

Addison.

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, from modern to ancient times, from one note to another more acute, etc.; as, our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity; to ascend to our first progenitor.

Syn. — To rise; mount; climb; scale; soar; tower.