capitulate

To surrender on stipulated terms, end all resistance, give up, go along with or comply.

Adjective

  1. Capitulated: agreed upon, convened, settled on, stipulated.
    • It was capitulate and convenanted, that […] the river Himera, […] - 1600, Philemon Holland, A translation of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, XXIV. VI. 512:
  2. Reduced to heads, laid down under a certain number of heads or items.
  3. Having or forming a capitulum.
    • The aggregation of flowers into capitulate inflorescences is a character directly advantageous from the aspect of the biological function of cross-pollination. - 1912, New Phytologist:

Origin

The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1537; borrowed from Medieval Latin capitulātus perfect passive participle of Medieval Latin capitulō (“(originally; of a book, text) to draw up under distinct headings; (from the 15ᵗʰ c.) to bargain, parley, convene”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from capitulum (“heading, chapter, title”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), diminutive of caput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

Forms

more capitulate most capitulate

Related

capital capitalism capitulation capitulatory captain chapiter chapter chef chief recapitulate

Noun

  1. Alternative form of capitoulate

Forms

capitulates

Verb

  1. To surrender on stipulated terms, end all resistance, give up, go along with or comply.
    • He argued and hollered for so long that I finally capitulated just to make him stop.
    • The Irish, after holding out a week, capitulated. - 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London:...
    • The CCP has refused to capitulate to Trump’s demands to come to the table and renegotiate their terms of trade. - 2025 April 16, Helen Davidson, “Chinese state media tells Trump to ‘stop whining’ as trade war spirals”,...

    Synonyms: wave the white flag see Thesaurus:surrender

    Antonyms: beat bring down convince chew up eat someone for breakfast eat someone's lunch flog humble kick ass malavogue murdelize outfox outguess outrun outsmart outwit overcome overpower overwin own pulverise pwn rape reduce

  2. To draw up in chapters, heads or articles; to enumerate, specify.
    • The lawes […] which we capitulate at sea […] are not used on lande. - 1593, Thomas Lodge, Life and Death of William Longbeard:
    • The places of serpents abode being thus generally capitulated. - 1608, Edward Topsell, Serpents:
  3. To draw up articles of agreement with; to propose terms, treat, bargain, parley.
    • there capitulates with the king […] to take to wife his daughter Mary - 1661, Peter Heylin, Ecclesia restaurata:
  4. To make conditions, stipulate, agree, formulate, conclude (upon something).

Forms

capitulates capitulating capitulated

Derived

capitulator precapitulate uncapitulated