succumb
Americanverb
-
to give way in face of the overwhelming force (of) or desire (for)
-
to be fatally overwhelmed (by disease, old age, etc); die (of)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
succumbsimple
-
succumbssimple
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have succumbedperfect
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has succumbedperfect
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am succumbingprogressive
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are succumbingprogressive
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is succumbingprogressive
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have been succumbingperfect progressive
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has been succumbingperfect progressive
Past
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succumbedsimple
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had succumbedperfect
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was succumbingprogressive
-
were succumbingprogressive
-
had been succumbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of succumb
First recorded in 1480–90; from Latin succumbere, from suc- suc- + -cumbere (derivative of cubāre “to lie down, recline”); cf. incumbent
Explanation
Use the verb succumb to say that someone yields to something they've tried to fight off, such as despair, temptation, disease or injury. If you succumb to cancer, it means you die of it. From this sentence you can see that this verb is usually followed by the preposition to. The Latin root is succumbere, from the prefix sub- "under" plus -cumbere "to lie down."
Vocabulary lists containing succumb
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
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List 3
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 1–7
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Simón, who undertook a similar odyssey at the same age, never allows this delicate story to succumb to self-indulgence or an inflated sense of its own importance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
It’s the jaded who succumb to violence and hopelessness, dragging everyone down with them.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
These kinds of commoditized industries tend to succumb to price wars: The lowest-cost producer “wins” by destroying the entire industry’s margins.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
Eight hours into the walk, she started to succumb to an electrolyte deficit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
He’d done well to ignore his mounting thirst and exhaustion today, and he certainly wouldn’t succumb to them now, when they were so close to the finish line.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
If it succumbs, a temporary oil-induced inflation blip could become something much longer lasting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026
The question is whether the party now meekly succumbs to the browbeating:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
In the more pessimistic schema, Tesla succumbs to competition and margin pressure, the market disregards Optimus in valuations and Robotaxi has slower growth expected.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 8, 2025
Malnourished and anemic, and without direct access to a health clinic, he succumbs to a treatable illness.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2025
On 29 January 2016, the last hive of honeybees, located on an almond farm in California, succumbs to CCD.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
While firefighters were able to reach Paul and Sheila inside the Mohican Road home, the couple succumbed to smoke inhalation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
The British number one had finally succumbed to Croatia's Donna Vekic in a slow-burning Queen's final, unable to save a fifth Championship point and continue a match which she had admirably stoked into a scrap.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
This is what it feels like to live in a society that has succumbed to what the late psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton described as “malignant normality.”
From Salon ● May 24, 2026
"The person concerned, a compatriot aged 28, unfortunately succumbed to the disease before the diagnosis was confirmed," the spokesman added.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
She would have walked beneath yellow-ringed pines rising to a brilliant eastern sky, and her senses would have succumbed to the joy of the morning.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
McCraney, Geffen Playhouse’s artistic director, said forging a path forward in nonprofit theater without succumbing to commercial pressure to produce only guaranteed hits requires the delicate balance of surfing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Donald Trump trades stocks at a confounding rate, Everlane is reportedly sold to Shein, and online media is succumbing to bots.
From Slate ● May 23, 2026
So the best investors can hope for in the U.K. is probably that the government will muddle through without succumbing to a political or fiscal collapse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
But succumbing to the siren song of salt, I left my packed lunch at home to give it a whirl and find out what regularly eating too much salt is doing to our health.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
He’d been a dairy farmer for years, he said, before switching to corrections thirteen years earlier, succumbing to economic inevitability.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
