Definition of "descender" []

• One that descends. (noun)
• Printing The part of the lowercase letters, such as g, p, and q, that extends below the other lowercase letters. (noun)
• Printing A letter with such a part. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The name descender is significant of the fact that there is along its whole course a descent to its banks; or it may simply denote the rapidity with which it "descends" to the Dead Sea."
• "It's when the dreadlocked, pierced-eared 19-year-old hooks a safety rope to a metal clip on his harness, wraps another rope through a metal device called a descender and steps from the roof of a building into nothingness."
• "Palestine -- the "descender," if not "the river of God" in the book of Psalms, at least that of his chosen people throughout their history."