Other forms: capitulated, capitulating, capitulates
To capitulate is to give in and accept the other side's terms. Capitulate to the demands, forced to capitulate, refused to capitulate.
It is surrender on agreed terms rather than collapse, which is the sense hidden in the origin: the Latin means to draw up under headings, because a capitulation was a document setting out the articles of surrender. In ordinary use it simply means giving in, usually reluctantly.
1verbcapitulateTo give in and accept the other side's terms.
“After a week of strikes, the company capitulated and agreed to the workers' demands.”
capitulate is a surrendering.
Medieval Latin capitulare means to draw up under headings, from capitulum, a chapter. A capitulation was a document of terms.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Medieval Latin
capitulātus
English, today
capitulate
Built from
The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1537; 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 and -ate), from capitulum (“heading, chapter, title”) + -ō, diminutive of caput (“head”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European kap-. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA