succumb, v.
(səˈkʌm)
Also 5 subcombe, succombe, 5–7 succumbe, 7–8 succomb.
[a. OF. succomber, also subcomber, ad. L. succumbĕre (subc-), f. suc- = sub- 2 + -cumbĕre to lie. Cf. It. soccombere, Sp. sucumbir, Pg. succumbir.
Noted by Johnson 1755 and Sinclair Obs. Sc. Dial. (1782) 94 as a peculiarly Scottish word.]
† 1. trans. To bring down, bring low, overwhelm. Obs.
| c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn xxviii. 104 In their folysshe pryde I shal succombe & brynge a lowe their corage. 1490 ― Eneydos xxii. 81 For to distroye her, & vtterly subcombe her in-to persecucyon extreme. 1549 Compl. Scot. Ep. 1 Thre vehement plagis quhilk hes al maist succumbit oure cuntre in final euertione. Ibid. vii. 71 My triumphant stait is succumbit in decadens. |
† 2. intr. To fail in a cause. Sc. Obs.
| 1561 Reg. Privy Council Scot. Ser. i. I. 174 To have succumbit in his said caus. 1586–7 Ibid. IV. 141 Succumband and failyieand nochtwithstanding heirin. |
3. To sink under pressure or give way to superior force, authority, etc.: said properly of persons or communities, and transf. of conditions, designs, occas. of material things.
| 1604 Earl Stirling Aurora El. iii. 34 Surcharg'd with sorowes I succomb. 1632 Lithgow Trav. viii. 372 The eight day..he succumb'd, and could not subsist, not beeing vsed to pedestriall trauayle. 1637–50 Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 500 As in all nationall tryells some succumbs, sundrie did adhere to their subscription of the King's Covenant. 1751 Philos. Lett. on Physiogn. 259 (T.) Our fortitude..may bend under the weight of malignancy and opposition, yet not succumb. 1754 Foote Knights ii, That I who have rejected so many matches should instantaneously succumb. 1846 Trench Mirac. 76 This scheme of interpretation, thus assailed from so many sides,..quickly succumbed. 1847 J. C. Calhoun Speeches Wks. 1861 IV. 354 So completely did the National party succumb, that..the word ‘National’ was not named. 1851 Gallenga Italy vii. 499 Italy..had stood up for a wrestle with Austria, and succumbed. 1886 C. E. Pascoe Lond. of To-day xxx. (ed. 3) 273 After suffering from conflagrations on many occasions, the crypt finally succumbed in the year 1834. |
b. Const. to. (In first quot., to yield the palm to.)
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 181 The now decayed Towne of Tharsus, who for antiquity will not succumbe to any City of Natolia. 1663 Butler Hud. i. iii. 459 And to their wills we must succumb, Quocunque trahunt, 'tis our doom. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. II. 255 The pretended Infallibility of Pope Liberius, succumb'd at the same time to the same Arian Coercive Politicks. 1738 A. Hill Let. Ld. Bolingbroke 25 June Wks. 1753 I. 274 One is involved by events, and succumbs to, and subsists by expedients. 1825 Lytton Zicci 27 Pardon me if I do not succumb to curiosity. 1828 Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 84 The small trader and settler must they knew succumb to the price they chose to fix. 1848 W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. II. 578 The honourable conviction, that Belgium ought not to give way to threats, however it might be doomed to succumb to force. 1878 Proctor Pleas. Ways Sci. x. (1879) 201 Even the most powerful and ferocious beasts must succumb in the long run to man. 1889 G. Findlay Engl. Railway 8 Those rails were of so light a description that they soon succumbed to heavy wear and tear. |
c. Const. under, beneath, occas. before.
| a 1734 North Exam. iii. vi. §47 (1740) 457 Men seem to succumb under it, as a Process, now become of Course. 1808 Bp. Watson Charge in 1805, 40 Thinking that Popery is every where succumbing under the general diffusion of knowledge. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. v. 97 The noble may be readily made to succumb beneath the base. a 1862 Buckle Misc. Wks. (1872) I. 12 The men of facts at length succumbed before the man of ideas. |
4. spec. To yield to the attacks of a disease, the effect of wounds, an operation, etc.; hence, to die.
| 1849 E. B. Eastwick Dry Leaves 205 Half the sipáh{iacu}s succumbed;—the doctor was so terrified at the number of deaths that he became deranged. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xx. 404 He succumbed in a few months to fever. 1886 Baring-Gould Court Royal xlviii, I think he caught a chill, and being below par he succumbed. 1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 10 Jan. 6/2 Mr. Picken has since succumbed to his injuries. |
† 5. trans. To abandon, give up. Obs.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 435 Arguments of Religion..they succumbe, their conference onely pleading mutuall forbearance. |
Hence suˈccumber, suˈccumbing vbl. n.
| 1844 Gladstone Let. in Purcell Life Manning (1895) I. xiv. 297, I am not sure..of your whole assertion that subscribers were mere succumbers. 1885 Athenæum 3 Jan. 7/1 Was it a sudden succumbing of Becket's keen intelligence to those superstitions of a dark age? |