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Definition of "capitulate" [ca•pit•u•late]

  • To surrender under specified conditions; come to terms. (verb-intransitive)
  • To give up all resistance; acquiesce. See Synonyms at yield. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "capitulate" in a sentence
  • "Proponents think that if the alliance expands to include Georgia and Ukraine, the West will have "gotten the better of Russia," while to exclude those nations would be to "capitulate" to Moscow."
  • "We've all seen it, papers that could not have been written by an eighth grader, using words such as capitulate and manipulate, when the child cannot even spell cap and man correctly in person!"
  • "So, this may be more about their inability to secure a locale than a desire to "capitulate" to the Cheney clan."