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
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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
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were succumbingprogressive
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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:
If their CTmax is exceeded, insects succumb to desiccation, muscle spasms and eventual stupor.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
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
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
He didn’t want her to get breathless and succumb to a fit of coughing.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
Soon “the spaceship is forced to land on a distant planet, and Rodolfo’s hallucinations grow increasingly intense until he finally succumbs to oxygen deprivation.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 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
Girl succumbs to her temptations while walking through the aisles.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 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
Yes, bears: crypto slang for people who think the price of Bitcoin is going to fall or who have in some other way succumbed to crypto pessimism.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
Some trees succumbed to insects after being weakened by drought.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Europeans, and especially Western Europe's leadership elites, have succumbed to a decades-long "crisis of disbelief", argues Andrew Michta, a Polish-born American academic who is professor of strategic studies at the Hamilton School, University of Florida.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
On Wednesday, his lawyer Ménya Arab-Tigrine denied any wrongdoing by Siad—who was in his late sixties—suggesting he might have succumbed to the stress of being under public scrutiny.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The outsiders, of course, thought that Remedios the Beauty had finally succumbed to her irrevocable fate of a queen bee and that her family was trying to save her honor with that tale of levitation.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
They experience a brief catharsis, a release of their anxiety about succumbing to temptation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
You need to balance your enjoyment of the present with building a future in California, without succumbing to 24/7 pressure.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
He acknowledged succumbing to the “deal heat” Cohan mentioned, but never regretted it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Kwang, along with Thotsakan's female singer Breeze and drummer Bew, died after succumbing to their injuries, according to a Facebook post from another band member, Patchara Songphatkaew.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
He had no difficulty in disposing of the fallacy, and he was in no danger of succumbing to it.
From "1984" by George Orwell
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.
