When night, dusk, or darkness descends, it starts to get dark. Darkness has now descended and the moon and stars shine hazily in the clear sky. = fall
To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or station; to lower or abase one's self; as, he descended from his high estate
To come down, as from a source, original, or stock; to be derived; to proceed by generation or by transmission; to fall or pass by inheritance; as, the beggar may descend from a prince; a crown descends to the heir
To pass from the more general or important to the particular or less important matters to be considered
To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence; with on or upon
move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way; "The temperature is going down"; "The barometer is falling"; "The curtain fell on the diva"; "Her hand went up and then fell again"
If you descend or if you descend a staircase, you move downwards from a higher to a lower level. Things are cooler and more damp as we descend to the cellar She descended one flight of stairs. = go down rise, ascend