subduct

[suhb-duhkt]

verb (used with object)

1. to take away; subtract.

2. to withdraw; remove.

3. Geology.,  (of acrustal plate ) to collide with (a denser plate), drawing it down and overriding it, along the juncture of the two plates.

verb (used without object)

1. Geology.,  (of acrustal plate ) to slide beneath a less dense plate as a consequence of the two plates’ colliding.

subduct

/ səbˈdʌkt /

verb

1. physiol to draw or turn (the eye, etc) downwards

2. rare,  to take away; deduct

Other Word Forms

• unsubducted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of subduct¹

First recorded in 1550–60; from Latin subductus, past participle of subdūcere “to draw up, withdraw”

Word History and Origins

Origin of subduct¹

C17: from Latin subdūcere, from _sub- + dūcere to lead, bring

Example Sentences

Rock from the subducting plates turns to magma when it reaches the mantle, creating hot spots that, over millennia, melt through the crust and break through as lava, forming volcanoes.

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These can provide information as to whether the carbon originates from a plant or from the atmosphere or was released from a subducted rock.

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The oceanic crust along the coast of the Atlantic is old and heavy, so it is primed to subduct, but before it can do so, it must break and bend.

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The zone where the islands switched from being subducted to being accreted would have been under incredible strain and been ripped apart.

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Continental tectonic plates, unlike their dense oceanic cousins, are thick and buoyant, so they don’t easily sink, or subduct, into the mantle during collisions.

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