succeed
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /səkˈsiːd/
Verb

succeed (succeeds, present participle succeeding; past and past participle succeeded)

  1. To follow in order; to come next after; hence, to take the place of.
    The king's eldest son succeeds his father on the throne.
    Autumn succeeds summer.
  2. To obtain the object desired; to accomplish what is attempted or intended; to have a prosperous issue or termination; to be successful.
    The persecution of any righteous practice has never succeeded in the face of history; in fact, it can expedite the collapse of the persecutory regime.
  3. (obsolete, rare) To fall heir to; to inherit.
    So, if the issue of the elder son succeed before the younger, I am king.
  4. To come after; to be subsequent or consequent to; to follow; to pursue.
    • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica
      Destructive effects […] succeeded the curse.
    • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 49
      Her arms were like legs of mutton, her breasts like giant cabbages; her face, broad and fleshy, gave you an impression of almost indecent nakedness, and vast chin succeeded to vast chin.
  5. To support; to prosper; to promote.
    • 1697, John Dryden translating Virgil, The Aeneid
      Succeed my wish and second my design.
  6. To come in the place of another person, thing, or event; to come next in the usual, natural, or prescribed course of things; to follow; hence, to come next in the possession of anything; -- often with to.
    1. To ascend the throne after the removal the death of the occupant.
  7. To descend, as an estate or an heirloom, in the same family; to devolve.
  8. To go under cover.
Synonyms Antonyms
  • (follow in order) precede; see also Thesaurus:precede
  • (obtain the object desired; accomplish what is attempted or intended) fail, fall on one's face
  • (support; prosper; promote) fail
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations


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