diff --git a/packages/quicktype-core/src/input/JSONSchemaInput.ts b/packages/quicktype-core/src/input/JSONSchemaInput.ts
index 66b1c4104b..ec2e0ddd54 100644
--- a/packages/quicktype-core/src/input/JSONSchemaInput.ts
+++ b/packages/quicktype-core/src/input/JSONSchemaInput.ts
@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@ import {
     patternAttributeProducer,
 } from "../attributes/Constraints.js";
 import { defaultValueAttributeProducer } from "../attributes/DefaultValue.js";
-import { descriptionAttributeProducer } from "../attributes/Description.js";
+import {
+    descriptionAttributeProducer,
+    propertyDescriptionsTypeAttributeKind,
+} from "../attributes/Description.js";
 import { enumValuesAttributeProducer } from "../attributes/EnumValues.js";
 import { StringTypes } from "../attributes/StringTypes.js";
 import {
@@ -819,6 +822,40 @@ async function addTypesInSchema(
         typeForCanonicalRef.set(loc.canonicalRef, t);
     }
 
+    async function descriptionForReferencedSchema(
+        schema: JSONSchema,
+        loc: Location,
+    ): Promise<string | undefined> {
+        if (
+            typeof schema !== "object" ||
+            typeof schema.description === "string"
+        ) {
+            return undefined;
+        }
+
+        const visited = new Set<string>();
+        for (;;) {
+            if (typeof schema !== "object" || typeof schema.$ref !== "string") {
+                return undefined;
+            }
+
+            const key = `${loc.canonicalRef.toString()}|${schema.$ref}`;
+            if (visited.has(key)) return undefined;
+            visited.add(key);
+
+            [schema, loc] = await resolver.resolveVirtualRef(
+                loc,
+                Ref.parse(schema.$ref),
+            );
+            if (
+                typeof schema === "object" &&
+                typeof schema.description === "string"
+            ) {
+                return schema.description;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     async function makeObject(
         loc: Location,
         attributes: TypeAttributes,
@@ -832,19 +869,48 @@ async function addTypesInSchema(
         const propertiesMap = mapSortBy(mapFromObject(properties), (_, k) =>
             sortKey(k),
         );
+        const referencedPropertyDescriptions = new Map<
+            string,
+            ReadonlySet<string>
+        >();
         const props = await mapMapSync(
             propertiesMap,
             async (propSchema, propName) => {
                 const propLoc = loc.push("properties", propName);
+                const checkedSchema = checkJSONSchema(
+                    propSchema,
+                    propLoc.canonicalRef,
+                );
                 const t = await toType(
-                    checkJSONSchema(propSchema, propLoc.canonicalRef),
+                    checkedSchema,
                     propLoc,
                     makeNamesTypeAttributes(propName, true),
                 );
+                const description = await descriptionForReferencedSchema(
+                    checkedSchema,
+                    propLoc,
+                );
+                if (description !== undefined) {
+                    referencedPropertyDescriptions.set(
+                        propName,
+                        new Set([description]),
+                    );
+                }
+
                 const isOptional = !required.has(propName);
                 return typeBuilder.makeClassProperty(t, isOptional);
             },
         );
+        if (referencedPropertyDescriptions.size > 0) {
+            attributes = combineTypeAttributes(
+                "union",
+                attributes,
+                propertyDescriptionsTypeAttributeKind.makeAttributes(
+                    referencedPropertyDescriptions,
+                ),
+            );
+        }
+
         let additionalPropertiesType: TypeRef | undefined;
         if (
             additionalProperties === undefined ||
diff --git a/packages/quicktype-core/src/language/JSONSchema/JSONSchemaRenderer.ts b/packages/quicktype-core/src/language/JSONSchema/JSONSchemaRenderer.ts
index 227a46da75..b35a64eabd 100644
--- a/packages/quicktype-core/src/language/JSONSchema/JSONSchemaRenderer.ts
+++ b/packages/quicktype-core/src/language/JSONSchema/JSONSchemaRenderer.ts
@@ -128,11 +128,12 @@ export class JSONSchemaRenderer extends ConvenienceRenderer {
             const req: string[] = [];
             for (const [name, p] of o.getProperties()) {
                 const prop = this.schemaForType(p.type);
-                if (prop.description === undefined) {
-                    addDescriptionToSchema(
-                        prop,
-                        this.descriptionForClassProperty(o, name),
-                    );
+                const propertyDescription = this.descriptionForClassProperty(
+                    o,
+                    name,
+                );
+                if (propertyDescription !== undefined) {
+                    addDescriptionToSchema(prop, propertyDescription);
                 }
 
                 props[name] = prop;
diff --git a/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.1.fail.no-defaults.json b/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.1.fail.no-defaults.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3809185c06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.1.fail.no-defaults.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  "name": "Ada"
+}
diff --git a/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.1.json b/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.1.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..36a1b77272
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.1.json
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "name": "Ada",
+  "surname": "Lovelace"
+}
diff --git a/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.schema b/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.schema
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b1029806b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/inputs/schema/description-ref.schema
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+{
+  "$defs": {
+    "name": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "description": "name description"
+    },
+    "surname": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "description": "surname description"
+    }
+  },
+  "type": "object",
+  "required": [
+    "name",
+    "surname"
+  ],
+  "properties": {
+    "name": {
+      "$ref": "#/$defs/name"
+    },
+    "surname": {
+      "$ref": "#/$defs/surname"
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/test/languages.ts b/test/languages.ts
index 120f3170b0..3ca3dad134 100644
--- a/test/languages.ts
+++ b/test/languages.ts
@@ -678,6 +678,7 @@ export const CJSONLanguage: Language = {
         /* Required properties absent are not checked (for the current implementation, can be added later, should abord parsing and return NULL) */
         "intersection.schema",
         "required.schema",
+        "description-ref.schema",
         // The default-value fail sample also relies on required-property
         // enforcement, which cJSON does not do.
         "default-value.schema",
@@ -1002,6 +1003,9 @@ export const SwiftLanguage: Language = {
         // This works on macOS, but on Linux one of the failure test cases doesn't fail
         ...skipsUntypedUnions,
         "required.schema",
+        // Same missing-required detection gap as required.schema: the
+        // no-defaults fail sample does not fail on Linux.
+        "description-ref.schema",
         // The default-value fail sample also relies on required-property enforcement.
         "default-value.schema",
         "multi-type-enum.schema",
@@ -1918,6 +1922,9 @@ export const HaskellLanguage: Language = {
         "keyword-unions.schema",
         "optional-any.schema",
         "required.schema",
+        // Same as required.schema: the Maybe-encoding driver prints "null"
+        // and exits 0, so this no-defaults fail sample can't be detected.
+        "description-ref.schema",
         // The default-value fail sample also relies on required-property enforcement.
         "default-value.schema",
         "required-non-properties.schema",
@@ -2087,6 +2094,8 @@ export const TypeScriptZodLanguage: Language = {
         "optional-any.schema",
         "recursive-union-flattening.schema",
         "required.schema",
+        // Same missing-required detection gap as required.schema.
+        "description-ref.schema",
         // The default-value fail sample also relies on required-property enforcement.
         "default-value.schema",
         "required-non-properties.schema",
@@ -2206,6 +2215,8 @@ export const TypeScriptEffectSchemaLanguage: Language = {
         "keyword-unions.schema",
         "optional-any.schema",
         "required.schema",
+        // Same missing-required detection gap as required.schema.
+        "description-ref.schema",
         // The default-value fail sample also relies on required-property enforcement.
         "default-value.schema",
         "required-non-properties.schema",
@@ -2273,6 +2284,7 @@ export const ElixirLanguage: Language = {
         // Struct keys cannot be enforced at runtime in Elixir and their values will just be set to null.
         "strict-optional.schema",
         "required.schema",
+        "description-ref.schema",
         // The default-value fail sample also relies on required-property enforcement.
         "default-value.schema",
         "boolean-subschema.schema",
diff --git a/test/unit/schema-description-ref.test.ts b/test/unit/schema-description-ref.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..557a36f25f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/schema-description-ref.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+import {
+    InputData,
+    JSONSchemaInput,
+    quicktype,
+} from "../../packages/quicktype-core/src/index.js";
+import { describe, expect, test } from "vitest";
+
+const schema = {
+    $defs: {
+        name: {
+            type: "string",
+            description: "name description",
+        },
+        surname: {
+            type: "string",
+            description: "surname description",
+        },
+    },
+    type: "object",
+    properties: {
+        name: { $ref: "#/$defs/name" },
+        surname: { $ref: "#/$defs/surname" },
+    },
+};
+
+interface RenderedSchema {
+    definitions: Record<
+        string,
+        { properties: Record<string, { description?: string }> }
+    >;
+}
+
+async function generateSchema(): Promise<RenderedSchema> {
+    const schemaInput = new JSONSchemaInput(undefined);
+    await schemaInput.addSource({
+        name: "Input",
+        schema: JSON.stringify(schema),
+    });
+
+    const inputData = new InputData();
+    inputData.addInput(schemaInput);
+
+    const result = await quicktype({ inputData, lang: "schema" });
+    return JSON.parse(result.lines.join("\n")) as RenderedSchema;
+}
+
+describe("JSON Schema descriptions through $ref (issue #1582)", () => {
+    test("descriptions from distinct definitions do not merge", async () => {
+        const output = await generateSchema();
+        const properties = output.definitions.Input.properties;
+
+        expect(properties.name.description).toBe("name description");
+        expect(properties.surname.description).toBe("surname description");
+    });
+});