concede

Definition

1. to admit that something is true

2. to stop trying to win a war, competition or argument because you realize that you cannot win it

View the full definition in the Macmillan Dictionary

Origin and usage

The verb concede comes from the Latin ‘concedere’. It has been used in English since the 16th century.

Examples

The earliest meaning of the verb concede is the one that is listed first in Macmillan Dictionary. It is often followed by the conjunction ‘that’ and is also used to report direct speech. The second meaning, which is both transitive and intransitive, is most typically followed by the noun ‘defeat’ and often preceded by an adverb such as eventually, finally, reluctantly or graciously. These first two meanings of concede have several interesting collocations; you can explore them further in our new Collocations Dictionary entry here. Concede has several meanings in addition to the two listed above. You can read about them here. The related noun ‘concession’ also has a number of meanings, which you can explore here. One of these meanings is a piece of land that is given to people to farm; the Canadian term concession road refers to a road that runs between such pieces of land.