Other forms: subsided, subsides, subsiding
To subside is to gradually die down — floods, pain, or applause. The pain subsided, floodwater subsided, wait for it to subside.
The gradualness is essential: things subside rather than stop, which is why it suits swelling, storms and anger. Of ground it means sinking, and subsidence is what cracks houses when clay shrinks in a dry summer. Note that the Latin is sub plus sidere, to settle down.
1verbsubsideTo gradually die down.
“The storm finally subsided, and the fishing boats could go out again.”
2verbsinkTo sink, of ground or a building.
“Cracks appeared in the walls when the house began to subside.”
subside is a dying down.
Latin subsidere is sub plus sidere, to settle. Reside, sediment and session come from the same settling.
Latin
subsīdō — to settle, subside
English, today
subside
From Latin subsīdō (“to settle, subside”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA