Word.ws English Dictionary

descanting

descanting is the present participle and gerund of descant.

Meaning of descant

Verb

descant (third-person singular simple present descants, present participle descanting, simple past and past participle descanted)

  1. (intransitive) To discuss at length.
    • […] Samballat gaue his daughter Nicaſo to Manaſſes, the brother of Iaddus the High Prieſt, in the time of Darius the laſt Perſian Monarch. This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or...1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] Of the Samaritans.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this...
  2. (intransitive) To sing or play a descant.

See all 4 meanings of descant

Questions about descanting

What is descanting the present participle and gerund of?
Descanting is the present participle and gerund of descant.

Words near descanting in the dictionary

  1. descant recorder
  2. descant recorders
  3. descanted
  4. descanter
  5. descanters
  6. descanting
  7. descantist
  8. descantists
  9. descants
  10. descarga
  11. descargas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: descanting (page history and authors); descant (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “descanting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/descanting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.