SUCCEED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does succeed mean? 

• SUCCEED (verb)
  The verb SUCCEED has 2 senses:

1. attain success or reach a desired goal

2. be the successor (of)

  Familiarity information: SUCCEED used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUCCEED (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they succeed    ... he / she / it succeeds   
Past simple: succeeded   
Past participle: succeeded   
-ing form: succeeding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Attain success or reach a desired goal

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

bring home the bacon; come through; deliver the goods; succeed; win

Context example:

she struggled to overcome her handicap and won

"Succeed" entails doing...:

assay; attempt; essay; seek; try (make an effort or attempt)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "succeed"):

hit (hit the intended target or goal)

bring off; carry off; manage; negociate; pull off (be successful; achieve a goal)

clear; pass (go unchallenged; be approved)

hit the jackpot; luck out (succeed by luck)

nail; nail down; peg (succeed in obtaining a position)

make it; pass (go successfully through a test or a selection process)

run (make without a miss)

act; work (have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or expected)

pan out (be a success)

accomplish; achieve; attain; reach (to gain with effort)

arrive; get in; go far; make it (succeed in a big way; get to the top)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

The business is going to succeed

Antonym:

fail (be unsuccessful)

Derivation:

succeeder (a person with a record of successes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be the successor (of)

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

come after; follow; succeed

Context example:

Will Charles succeed to the throne?

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "succeed"):

accede; enter (take on duties or office)

replace; supersede; supervene upon; supplant (take the place or move into the position of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s PP

Antonym:

precede (be the predecessor of)

Derivation:

succession (the action of following in order)

succession (a following of one thing after another in time)

successive (in regular succession without gaps)

successor (a thing or person that immediately replaces something or someone)

successor (a person who inherits some title or office)

successor (a person who follows next in order)

 Context examples 

I shall succeed in that time, and the editors will be glad to buy my good work.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Oh! never, never, never! he never will succeed with me.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Thanks to this lonely cottage and his own discretion, Godfrey has up to now succeeded.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She would not allow any other anxiety to succeed directly to the place in her mind which Harriet had occupied.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The anxieties of common life began soon to succeed to the alarms of romance.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The recollection of about three days and nights succeeding this is very dim in my mind.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was succeeded by a moment's pause.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The funeral was arranged for the next succeeding day, so that Lucy and her mother might be buried together.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As that was impossible, she did her best to seem gay, and being rather excited, she succeeded so well that no one dreamed what an effort she was making.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Possibly Beauty Smith, arch-fiend and tormentor, was capable of breaking White Fang's spirit, but as yet there were no signs of his succeeding.

(White Fang, by Jack London)