ascend, v.
(əˈsɛnd)
Also 4–5 assende, 4–6 ascende, 7 adsend. pa. pple. 6 ascend.
[ad. L. ascend-ĕre, adscend-ĕre, f. ad- to + -scendĕre = scandĕre to climb. The perfect tenses were sometimes conjugated with be.]
I. Literal senses.
1. intr. (occas. emphasized by a redundant up) To go or come up, originally by a gradual motion, to a relatively higher position; a. of voluntary agents: To climb up, travel up, walk up; to soar, mount.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Sam. i. 22 Helchana stiede up..for to offre to the Lord..his vowe. And Anna assendide not. ― 2 Macc. ii. 4 The hill in whiche Moyses ascendide. c 1440 Gesta Rom. ii. xx. 339 Lette downe now the corde to me, that I may assende. 1526 Tindale John vi. 62 Yf ye shall se the sonne of man ascende vp where he was before. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. ii. 21 The Noble Brutus is ascended: Silence. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 198 Ye Birds, That singing up to Heaven gate ascend. 1782 Priestley Nat. & Rev. Relig. II. 5 Apollonius is..said to have ascended into heaven. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 181 He..Ascending tired, heavily slept till morn. |
b. of inanimate things: To rise, be raised, move to a higher level.
| 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshman 44 When he would eate, the apples do ascende. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §12 Water will not ascend higher than the level of the first springhead from whence it descendeth. 1665–6 Phil. Trans. I. 184 Subterraneal Steams..adscending into the Air. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc v. 42 Ascending slow..the curling smoke Melts in the impurpled air. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1540 A cloud..With the dawn ascending. |
c. of sounds: To rise in the air, or so as to be heard aloud.
| 1667 Milton P.L. i. 496 The noise Of riot ascends above their loftiest Towrs. 1728 De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. 81 Voice always ascends, the vibration moving most naturally upwards. 1864 Skeat Uhland's Poems 187 A roar of shouts ascends. |
2. Of planetary bodies, signs of the zodiac, etc.: a. spec. To come above the horizon. b. gen. To move towards the zenith.
| c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §3 To knowe..the degree of any signe that assendith on the est Orisonte. Ibid. ii. §40 Iuppiter ascendit with 14 degrees of pisces. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 10 Whan the planetes..ascended and whan they discended. 1557 Surrey æneid iv. (R.) To morne, as soon as Titan shall ascend. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xxxii. 342 Those Signes that do ascend rightly, do descend obliquely. 1695 Congreve Love for Love ii. i, I was born, Sir, when the Crab was ascending. 1735 Pope Mor. Ess. ii. 254 All mild ascends the Moon's more sober light. 1819 J. Wilson Dict. Astrol. 297 Less of the equator ascends with northern signs. |
3. To rise by process of growth or construction; to be raised or reared, to erect itself. Only poet. Cf. arise v. 16.
| 1667 Milton P.L. i. 722 Th' ascending pile Stood fixt her stately highth. 1731 Pope Mor. Ess. iv. 198 Bid Temples, worthier of the God, ascend. 1765 Goldsm. Trav. 105 Far to the right, where Apennine ascends. 1809 J. Barlow Columbiad i. 325 Exalt your heads ye oaks, ye pines ascend. |
4. To slope upwards, lie along an ascending slope.
| 1832 Brannon Guide I. Wight (1853) 96 This pretty village..is situated about a mile west of the town, ascending a hill. Mod. The path ascends by the Red Tarn. |
5. trans. To go up by degrees to a relatively higher position upon; to walk up, climb, mount; hence, to go up to the top of, reach the summit of. to ascend a river: to go along it towards its source.
| c 1400 Epiph. (Turnb. 1843) 103 Wherefor of sort the hyll thei ben ascendyd. 1513 Douglas æneis i. vii. 2 Quhill ascend ar thai The hill. 1718 Lady Montague Lett. II. lii. 72 We began to ascend mount Cenis. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. xiii, Their galleys ascended the river. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §2. 17 Next day I ascended the valley of Hasli. 1851 Dixon Will. Penn xvii. 144 Ascending the Delaware. |
6. To go up into or get up on (a place or object at a higher level); to mount. Obs. exc. poet., and in the phrase, now hardly more than fig., ‘To ascend the throne,’ the earliest cited instance of which shows the transition to this sense from the prec.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. i. 56 Thou Ladder wherewithall The mounting Bullingbroke ascends my Throne. 1598 ― Merry W. iii. iii. 173 Ascend my Chambers. 1616 R. C. Times' Whis. iii. 1017 When as thou wilt thy stately horse ascend. 1658 Rowland Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 932 When the male ascends the female. 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 710 Ascend my Chariot. 1771 Junius Lett. xlix. 255 The moment he ascended the throne. 1861 Hook Lives Abps. I. vii. 374 Edwy was permitted to ascend the throne. |
II. Transferred and figurative senses.
7. intr. To proceed from the inferior to the superior; to rise in thought, degree of characteristic quality, social station, etc.
| 1549 Compl. Scotl. i. 20 Childir..incressis quhil thai be ascendit to the perfyit stryntht of men. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. i. 53 Painted glasse of a sanguine red will not ascend in powder above a murrey. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 512 In contemplation of created things By steps we may ascend to God. 1751 Jortin Serm. (1771) VI. iv. 67 A rash desire to ascend to a rank—for which God's providence has not designed us. 1850 M{supc}Cosh Div. Govt. i. ii. (1874) 27 We shall ascend..beyond laws to a lawgiver. |
8. Of or in respect of sounds: To rise in pitch.
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 81 Vnpossible to ascende..in continuall deduction without a discord. 1674 Playford Skill of Mus. iii. 5 If the Bass shall ascend. |
9. To go back in time (i.e. up the ‘stream of time’), or in order of genealogical succession.
| 1574 tr. Littleton's Tenures 2 b, Inheritance may lineally descend, but not lyneally ascend. a 1800 Cowper tr. Grk. Verses on Pedigree, [They] from age to age Ascending, triumph their illustrious race. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. xi. 311 The eldest male of the eldest ascending line, the father, grandfather. |
† 10. intr. Of winds, etc.: To ‘rise.’ Obs. rare.
| 1715 Pope Iliad iv. 478 As when the winds, ascending by degrees, First move the whitening surface of the seas. |
† 11. causal. To raise in estimation, exalt. Obs.
| 1628 Feltham Resolves (1677) 33 They set him almost on the throne of a Deity; ascend him to an unmovedness. |