Meaning of Ascendant | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The degree of the zodiac or point of the ecliptic which rises in an eastern direction above the horizon at a particular moment (especially the moment of a person's birth), which is supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's fortune and life; a horoscope.
   also, figuratively
2. Chiefly in in the ascendant: an act of ascending or rising.
   broadly
3. Synonym of ascendancy (“commanding influence; dominant control; superiority, supremacy”).
   broadly, figuratively
4. An ancestor.
   broadly
5. A person who ascends or goes up; specifically (usually followed by to), a person who ascends to a throne or assumes some other position of power.
   broadly, obsolete
6. Something which is higher than the things around it; a peak, a summit; specifically (typography), synonym of ascender (“the portion of a lowercase letter that extends above the midline”).
   broadly, obsolete
7. Something which leads or slopes upwards, such as a flight of stairs or an upward incline.
   broadly, obsolete
8. A person who supports a policy of ecclesiastical or national supremacy.
   broadly, obsolete, rare

Equivalents

Examples

“[T]hey ſay that Jeſus in his natiuitie, had for his aſcendent, the ſigne of Virgo in her firſt face, as they terme it, […]”

“At my Nativity, my aſcendent vvas the earthly ſigne of Scorpius, I vvas borne in the Planetary houre of Saturne, and I think I have a piece of that Leaden Planet in me.”

“There he was a mere cypher: here he was lord of the ascendant; the choice spirit, the dominant genius.”

“The most important part of the sky in the astrologer's consideration, was that sign of the zodiac which rose at the moment of the child's birth; this was, properly speaking, the horoscope, the ascendant, or the first house; the whole circuit of the heavens being divided into twelve houses, in which life and death, marriage and children, riches and honours, friends and enemies were distributed.”

“Towards the end of the session of 1836, the hopes of the Conservative party were again in the ascendant.”

“[T]hose poets, […] by enriching the common language and by circulating from to town to town either in person or in their compositions, contributed to fan the flame of Pan-Hellenic patriotism at a time when there were few circumstances to co-operate with them, and when the causes tending to perpetuate isolation seemed in the ascendant.”

“One man has the ascendant over another.”

“To my aſcendant haſting then to clime, / There are the firſt predomining the time.”

“[T]he Dominion of ſucceeding Favourites […] occaſioned perpetual commotions in that State, and changes of the Miniſtry; and vvould certainly have produced thoſe in the Government too; if [Cardinal] Richelieu having gained the abſolute aſcendant in that Court, had not engaged in the deſigns at firſt of a VVar upon the Hugonots, and after that vvas ended, upon Spain; […]”

“Chievres had acquired over the mind of the young monarch the aſcendant not only of a tutor, but of a parent.”

“The Eſtate and Inheritance of a Perſon dying Inteſtate is, by Right of Devolution, according to the Civil-Lavv, given to ſuch as are ally'd to him ex Latere, commonly ſtiled Collaterals, if there be no Aſcendants or Deſcendants ſurviving at the time of his Death.”

“Given his father’s ghastly demise, one would not expect such glee from the ascendant to his throne.”

“[P]ryde can endure no Superiours, no equals, no aſcendants, no ſprigs, no grafts, no likely beginnings.”

“[T]here can be no reaſon yeilded neither in nature, nor in relation, vvherefore, if it have lavvfully mounted thus high, it ſhould not be a Lordly aſcendent in the horoſcope of the Church, from Primate to Patriarch, and ſo to Pope.”

“Indeed, my dear Sir, there is not a single particular in the Francis-street declamations, which has not, to your and to my certain knowledge, been taught by the jealous ascendants, sometimes by doctrine, sometimes by example, always by provocation.”

CEFR level