v. 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. Ibid., 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. Shaks., 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. & Uplondyshm., 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, trans. 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, Aeneid, IV. 150 (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. Shaks., Rich. II., V. i. 56. Thou Ladder wherewithall The mounting Bullingbroke ascends my Throne. Ibid. (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, trans. Moufet’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. McCosh, 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. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 2 b. Inheritance may lineally descend, but not lyneally ascend.
a. 1800. Cowper, trans. 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.
