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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
subvert
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Smith was sentenced to 14 years for plotting to subvert the government.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A more contemporary comparison might be deconstruction, which tries to subvert the text by turning its own unacknowledged premises against it.
▪ Coercion and domination subvert the integrity of love by creating power relationships that are its antithesis.
▪ It is as if the filters of distance and time were subverted by the complex connecting of everything to everything.
▪ Neville's genius was to subvert and turn round press attacks on Oz, but they could still cost dearly.
▪ Other officials with different views were also subverting them.
▪ Too much control and predictability might eventually subvert the organizational goals.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subvert

Subvert \Sub*vert"\, v. i. To overthrow anything from the foundation; to be subversive.

They have a power given to them like that of the evil principle, to subvert and destroy.

Subvert

Subvert \Sub*vert"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Subverted; p. pr. & vb. n. Subverting.] [L. subvertere, subversum; sub under + vertere to turn: cf. F. subvertir. See Verse.]

  1. To overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin utterly.

    These are his substance, sinews, arms, and strength, With which he yoketh your rebellious necks, Razeth your cities, and subverts your towns.
    --Shak.

    This would subvert the principles of all knowledge.
    --Locke.

  2. To pervert, as the mind, and turn it from the truth; to corrupt; to confound.
    --2 Tim. iii. 14.

    Syn: To overturn; overthrow; destroy; invert; reverse; extinguish.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
subvert

late 14c., "to raze, destroy, overthrow, undermine, overturn," from Old French subvertir "overthrow, destroy" (13c.), or directly from Latin subvertere "to turn upside down, overturn, overthrow," from sub "under" (see sub-) + vertere "to turn" (see versus). Related: Subverted; subverting.

Wiktionary
subvert

Etymology 1 vb. 1 (context transitive English) To overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin utterly. 2 (context transitive English) To pervert, as the mind, and turn it from the truth; to corrupt; to confound. 3 (context transitive English) To upturn convention from the foundation by undermine it (literally, to turn from beneath). Etymology 2

n. An advertisement created by subvertising.

WordNet
subvert
  1. v. cause the downfall of; of rulers; "The Czar was overthrown"; "subvert the ruling class" [syn: overthrow, overturn, bring down]

  2. corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; "debauch the young people with wine and women"; "Socrates was accused of corrupting young men"; "Do school counselors subvert young children?"; "corrupt the morals" [syn: corrupt, pervert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch, debase, profane, vitiate, deprave, misdirect]

  3. destroy property or hinder normal operations; "The Resistance sabotaged railroad operations during the war" [syn: sabotage, undermine, countermine, counteract, weaken]

  4. destroy completely; "we must not let our civil liberties be subverted by the current crisis"

Usage examples of "subvert".

To confound the order of seasons and climates, to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature and decency, were in the number of his most delicious amusements.

Lawyers of a kind move about hustling clients in the subverted tones of scalpers, while the state defenders shout out the names of persons whom they have never met and whom they will be defending in a moment.

Order of Resonance came next into the dark room to bleed, and from them the interrogators extracted the details of plans to free the Warreners, and copious information about their search for an antidote to the addictive poisons in Wayfare, and the ways that they subverted art to bring others around to their cause.

She set a course away from riot and chaos, driven by a need to be alone to think about what she could do to subvert the terrible events Lady Westmorland had unleashed.

Father thinks that Lord Yueh subverted Master Markko years ago, waiting for his chance to strike.

The factions found themselves trapped in the arcane bioaesthetics of Post-humanist philosophy, subverted constantly by Regal broadcasts, Regal teaching, Regal culture.

As long as Toma lived, the hatchlings stood the chance of falling into his hands and being subverted to his cause.

The alliance led to a confrontation in which the deceit and scheming of the Jevlenese was exposed, revealing the network of infiltrators by which they had endeavored to subvert modern-day Earth after the attempts to block its technological advancement failed.

Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.

Eddington scowled down at his station, as if he thought its sensors could somehow have been subverted by the enemy.

If Kapur could determine the goals of the Snowmen, then those objectives could be subverted to serve human purposes.

Odds on the Hollywood Commies subverting the country with their cornball propaganda turkeys, rallies and picket line highjinks: thirty trillion to one against, a longshot from Mars.

Compared to it the gratifications of pretense and denial, the insistence on subverting one's blood and virility in the name of a false manhood conditioned by a demented, antibiological society, are pallid indeed.

Whoever introduces new laws, not being thereunto authorised, by the fundamental appointment of the society, or subverts the old, disowns and overturns the power by which they were made, and so sets up a new legislative.

But when men think that these beggarly contrivances may supply a resource for the evils which result from breaking up the foundations of public order, and from causing or suffering the principles of property to be subverted, they will, in the ruin of their country, leave a melancholy and lasting monument of the effect of preposterous politics and presumptuous, short-sighted, narrow-minded wisdom.