Meaning & use
submit
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To hand in or send something, such as a form or piece of work, so that it can be examined or decided on.
Grammar: Takes an object: submit an application; often followed by to or for.
Patterns
- submit something to someone
- submit something for something
Please submit your assignment before midnight on Friday.
She submitted her novel to three publishers.
Applicants must submit two references with the form.
verbintransitiveformal
To give in to someone stronger or to a demand, accepting that you cannot resist.
Grammar: Often followed by to: submit to pressure; no direct object.
Patterns
- submit to someone
- submit to something
The rebels refused to submit to the new government.
He would not submit to threats, however serious.
After a long struggle, the defendant submitted to the court's authority.
verbtransitiveformallegal
To put forward an opinion or argument politely, especially in a formal or legal setting.
Grammar: Usually followed by a that clause: the lawyer submitted that the evidence was unreliable.
Patterns
- submit that something is true
I submit that the committee has overlooked the most important point.
Counsel submitted that her client had acted in good faith.
Word forms
| third person singular | submits |
|---|---|
| past tense | submitted |
| past participle | submitted |
| -ing form | submitting |
Common combinations
- submit an application
- You can submit an application online until March 1.
- submit a proposal
- The team submitted a proposal for the new bridge.
- submit to authority
- Some citizens refused to submit to authority.
- submit a report
- Managers must submit a report each quarter.
- submit your resignation
- He submitted his resignation on Monday morning.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hand in
- Hand in is the casual, everyday phrasal verb for delivering work, while submit sounds more official.
- yield
- Yield suggests giving way under pressure and can describe objects as well as people, unlike submit, which needs a person or group.
- surrender
- Surrender is stronger and implies giving up completely after a fight.
- present
- Present stresses showing something to an audience, whereas submit stresses sending it for judgment.
Opposites
Word family
- submission noun
- the act of handing something in, or of giving in
- submissive adjective
- ready to obey without argument
- submissively adverb
- in an obedient way
- resubmit verb
- to send in again
Commonly confused: submit or permit?
submit vs permit
Permit means to allow something, whereas submit means to hand something in or to give in.
Practice
Which preposition completes the sentence? The prisoners finally had to submit ___ the guards' orders.
Choose one answer.
When submit means to give in, it is followed by to. Submit for would mean sending something for consideration, which does not fit here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “submit”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.