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
-
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:
It nevertheless seems a good bet that, sooner or later and quite likely sooner, the market will succumb to the gravitational pull of insider bearishness.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Mayor Zohran Mamdani made headlines when he watched England succumb to Argentina with inmates at the city's notorious Rikers Island jail.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
It’s the jaded who succumb to violence and hopelessness, dragging everyone down with them.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Now the time has finally arrived to find out whether they can live up to that moniker—or if they’ll succumb to its curse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Even with his mercury-and-jalap cure in hand, Benjamin Rush looked about him and understood that Philadelphia itself might succumb at any moment.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
He girded himself to “understand better now what I’ve always known: he who drags himself through life, who succumbs under its weight, can’t help anyone, no matter what duties he takes on.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 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
Fearing he’s a has-been, the diminutive, balding Hart slowly succumbs to self-loathing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 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
It is not the first time the castle has succumbed to an earthquake.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
“Yale will be regarded either as a beacon and a fighter for academic freedom or as the weakling who succumbed and obeyed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 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
Four days ago, one of the king’s own squires had succumbed to cold and hunger, a boy named Bryen Farring who’d been kin to Ser Godry.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Clifford Joseph Boisa, 79, died Tuesday after succumbing to injuries sustained in the incident.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
It seems the cohort of crypto-exposed names was joining the broad-based tech rally ahead of the open rather than succumbing to the pressure on Bitcoin.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 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
And fully remembered the decisions he’d made before succumbing to sleep.
From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner
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.
