The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subdue \Sub*due"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Subdued; p. pr. & vb. n. Subduing.] [OE. soduen, OF. sosduire to seduce, L. subtus below (fr. sub under) + ducere to lead. See Duke, and cf. Subduct.]
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To bring under; to conquer by force or the exertion of superior power, and bring into permanent subjection; to reduce under dominion; to vanquish.
I will subdue all thine enemies.
--1 Chron. xvii. 10. -
To overpower so as to disable from further resistance; to crush.
Nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.
--Shak.If aught . . . were worthy to subdue The soul of man.
--Milton. To destroy the force of; to overcome; as, medicines subdue a fever.
To render submissive; to bring under command; to reduce to mildness or obedience; to tame; as, to subdue a stubborn child; to subdue the temper or passions.
To overcome, as by persuasion or other mild means; as, to subdue opposition by argument or entreaties.
To reduce to tenderness; to melt; to soften; as, to subdue ferocity by tears.
To make mellow; to break, as land; also, to destroy, as weeds.
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To reduce the intensity or degree of; to tone down; to soften; as, to subdue the brilliancy of colors.
Syn: To conquer; overpower; overcome; surmount; vanquish. See Conquer.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of subdue English)
Usage examples of "subduing".
East Anglian nobility, who escaped into their own country, Offa, having extinguished the royal family, succeeded in his design of subduing that kingdom.
Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils.
If Constantine had the advantage of erecting the standard of the cross, the emulation of his successor assumed the merit of subduing the Arian heresy, and of abolishing the worship of idols in the Roman world.
But the cruel and absurd enterprise of subduing the minds of a whole people was undertaken by the Vandals alone.
Toledo, to excuse his presumption of subduing a kingdom in the absence of his general.
From thence, subduing the Barbarians of Germany, he proposed to follow the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea, to overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, and returning from Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch and the provinces of Syria.
Latins have subdued the empire, without subduing the minds, of the Greeks.
Plautius, an able general, who gained some victories, and made a considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants.
This great commander formed a regular plan for subduing Britain, and rendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors.
The Danes next year appeared off the eastern coast, in hopes of subduing a people who defended themselves by their money, which invited assailants, instead of their arms, which repelled them.
Danes, who had obtained large grants from the late kings, their countrymen, on account of their services in subduing the kingdom, the English were rather pleased to see them reduced to their primitive poverty.
Christian bishops, on whose aid he relied for subduing the temporal princes, saw that he was determined to reduce them to servitude, and, by assuming the whole legislative and judicial power of the church to centre all authority in the sovereign pontiff.
Their barbarous manner of life rendered them much fitter than the Romans for subduing these mountaineers.
You reproach the army of Italy for having surmounted all difficulties--for subduing all Italy for having twice passed the Alps--for having marched on Vienna, and obliged Austria to acknowledge the Republic that, you, men of Clichy, would destroy.
Nothing but madness or despair could have suggested the thought of subduing, with such scanty resources, the foreign masses which occupied and surrounded Paris.