succumb
- 01 C1 Advanced
to become very sick or die from a disease.
to be overwhelmed by a physical condition or to die from an illness; often functions as a formal euphemism for death.
Simple“Many people in the village succumbed to the flu during the cold winter.”
In context“After a long and courageous battle with the disease, the patient finally succumbed to his injuries late last night.”
UsageIn medical contexts, it implies the body could no longer resist the progression of a condition.
“In September 1996, rap star Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas strip, succumbing days later to his injuries.”
“The Owls, under new ownership since succumbing to the earliest relegation in English Football League history in February, went ahead through Callum Slattery’s debut goal before Joseph Olowu levelled before the break.”
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Italic *supo Latin sub Latin sub- Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- Proto-Italic *kumbō Latin *cumbō Latin succumbere Old French succomberbor. English succumb From Old French succomber, from Latin succumbō.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.