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If the idea of someone succumbing brings to mind the image of a person lying down before more powerful forces, you have an excellent grasp of the Latin that gave English succumb. Succumb derives from the French word succomber, which is itself from the Latin word succumbere, meaning "to fall down" or "to yield." Succumbere was formed by combining sub-, meaning "under," with -cumbere, meaning "to lie down." The earliest application of succumb in the late 15th century was as a transitive verb meaning "to bring down" or "to overwhelm," but this sense is now obsolete. The current sense of "to yield" first appeared in print in the early 17th century; the more specific use—yielding to a disease or other destructive force—followed decades later.
Examples of succumb in a Sentence
Colin Thubron, New York Times Book Review, 9 Apr. 2009
Last spring, the Knight Ridder chain succumbed to pressure from its largest private investor and sold off its entire lineup of 32 papers to the McClatchy Co. for more than $4 billion.
—Eric Klinenberg, Mother Jones, March/April 2007
Yet after Paul died in 1978 and his successor John Paul I succumbed to a heart attack only 34 days into his papacy, Wojyla was so oblivious to his impending fate that he spent the first day of the new papal conclave nonchalantly browsing through a quarterly review of Marxist theory.
—David Van Biema, Time, 11 Apr. 2005
Interviews with cadets, police officers and investigators trying to crack down on crime inside Mexico City's 80,000-officer force revealed that even the most earnest cops often succumb to the temptations that are both plentiful and low risk.
—Alan Zarembo, Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2000
They will pressure you, and you must try not to succumb.
he finally succumbed and let his wife get rid of his dilapidated easy chair
ArsTechnica, 8 May 2025
These are songs from a band that has not yet succumbed.
—Armond White, National Review, 7 May 2025
Without succumbing to a sappy ending, Reza makes a strong case for valuing relationships over intellectual homogeneity — an outlook that can feel either naïve or hopeful in polarizing times.
—Emily McClanathan, Chicago Tribune, 7 May 2025
Even younger generations have succumbed to the charm of Tiffany lamps, with some who cannot afford the real deal committing Tiffany’s designs to ink as tattoos.
—Mercedes Hutton, New York Times, 3 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Succumb.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/succumb. Accessed 23 May. 2025.
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succumb
verb
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