subduct

American  

[suhb-duhkt] / səbˈdʌkt /

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.

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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 British  

/ səbˈdʌkt /

verb

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

2. rare to take away; deduct

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Other Word Forms

• unsubducted
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of subduct

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

Example Sentences

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.

From Science Daily • Feb. 15, 2024

Mitchell calls these zones “subduction girdles,” because the continental plates, too thick to subduct, go there and “get stuck,” he says.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 21, 2021

But in eastern Indonesia, where Sulawesi is located, the Indo–Australian Plate is topped by continental crust that does not subduct —so it is simply ramming headlong into the crust of the Eurasian Plate, fracturing it.

From Scientific American • Oct. 3, 2018

If continental and oceanic lithosphere are fused on the same plate, it can partially subduct but its buoyancy prevents it from fully descending.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2017

When one plate hits another and begins to dive downwards — or subduct — it melts and becomes incorporated in the underlying ice, the duo proposes.

From Nature • Sep. 6, 2014