Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#SUBDUECategory:English terms derived from Middle English#SUBDUE subdewen, subduen, sodewen, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#SUBDUE souduire, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#SUBDUE subdūcō (“to draw away”), perhaps influenced by subdō (“to subdue, subject”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /səbˈdu/Category:English 2-syllable words#SUBDUECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#SUBDUE
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səbˈdjuː/, /səbˈdʒuː/, /sʌb-/Category:English 2-syllable words#SUBDUECategory:English 2-syllable words#SUBDUECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#SUBDUE

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#SUBDUE

Verb

subdue (third-person singular simple present subdues, present participle subduing, simple past and past participle subdued)Category:English lemmas#SUBDUECategory:English verbs#SUBDUECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SUBDUECategory:Pages with entries#SUBDUECategory:Pages with 1 entry#SUBDUE

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#SUBDUE) To overcome, quieten, or bring under control.

   Synonyms: restrain, stifle, underbring; see also Thesaurus:curb

   • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d:
     And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes,
     Share equally the gold that bought their liues,
     And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#SUBDUE

   • 2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC‎:

     Gary Cahill, a target for Arsenal and Tottenham before the transfer window closed, put England ahead early on and Rooney was on target twice before the interval as the early hostility of the Bulgarian supporters was swiftly subdued.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SUBDUE

   • 2025 June 14, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, “James Blake’s fight against ‘free music’”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12:

     “It's like the opposite of punk, isn't it?” he said jokingly in 2016 while discussing his influence on other musicians. “I've subdued a generation.” But [James] Blake is not so quiescent after all.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SUBDUE

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#SUBDUE) To bring (a country) under control by force.

   Synonyms: conquer, underbring

   • 2025 January 14, Howard LaFranchi, “In Biden-Trump handoff, a foreign policy shift for a changed world?”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     In the run-up to his return to the White House next Monday, Mr. Trump has rattled the world, and America’s neighborhood in particular, with a list of objectives – buying Greenland, seizing the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state – that treat friendly nations as weak interlocutors and impediments to be subdued.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SUBDUE