CS Knowledge Base

verb

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈpɪ.tjʊ.leɪt/, /kəˈpɪ.t͡ʃə.leɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ʊ.leɪt/, /kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ə.leɪt/

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adjective, noun

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈpɪ.tjʊ.lət/, /kəˈpɪ.t͡ʃə.lət/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ʊ.lət/, /kəˈpɪt͡ʃ.(j)ə.lət/

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 15^th 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.

capitulate (third-person singular simple present capitulates, present participle capitulating, simple past and past participle capitulated)

1. (intransitive, originally only in military setting) To surrender on stipulated terms, end all resistance, give up, go along with or comply. [from the end of the 17^th c.]

   Synonyms: wave the white flag, see Thesaurus:surrender

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:defeat

   He argued and hollered for so long that I finally capitulated just to make him stop.

   • 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: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The Irish, after holding out a week, capitulated.

   • 1957 November 14, Sputnik [pseudonym], “My Son Hates School”, in Daily Record, number 19,357, Glasgow: Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, columns 2–3:

     BEFORE school rocketed into his tiny world with about as much warning as a sputnik, my son knew only little hates. I knew he had got himself a bigger one when he said to me after his first day there: “School, I HATE IT!” He’s been hating it solidly ever since . . . for all of ten weeks. If I was school . . . I’d capitulate tomorrow. I’d bonfire the books, drain the inkwells and bust up the blackboard — if only he would stop hating. It’s wearing me out!

   • 2025 April 16, Helen Davidson, “Chinese state media tells Trump to ‘stop whining’ as trade war spirals”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     The CCP has refused to capitulate to Trump’s demands to come to the table and renegotiate their terms of trade.

2. (ambitransitive, obsolete) To draw up in chapters, heads or articles; to enumerate, specify.
   • 1593, Thomas Lodge, Life and Death of William Longbeard:

     The lawes […] which we capitulate at sea […] are not used on lande.

   • 1608, Edward Topsell, Serpents:

     The places of serpents abode being thus generally capitulated.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To draw up articles of agreement with; to propose terms, treat, bargain, parley.
   • 1661, Peter Heylin, Ecclesia restaurata:

     there capitulates with the king […] to take to wife his daughter Mary

4. (transitive, obsolete) To make conditions, stipulate, agree, formulate, conclude (upon something).

capitulate (comparative more capitulate, superlative most capitulate)

1. (obsolete, as a participle)
   1. Capitulated: agreed upon, convened, settled on, stipulated.
      • 1600, Philemon Holland, A translation of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, XXIV. VI. 512:

        It was capitulate and convenanted, that […] the river Himera, […]

   2. Reduced to heads, laid down under a certain number of heads or items.

      (Can we add an example for this sense?)

2. (botany) Having or forming a capitulum.
   • 1912, New Phytologist:

     The aggregation of flowers into capitulate inflorescences is a character directly advantageous from the aspect of the biological function of cross-pollination.

capitulate (plural capitulates)

1. Alternative form of capitoulate

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

capitulate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of capitular combined with te