v. 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. Ibid. (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. Ibid. (1586–7), 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. 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, trans. 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. Eastwick, Dry Leaves, 205. Half the sipáhis 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 Succumber, Succumbing vbl. sb.
1844. Gladstone, Lett., 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?
