Definition of Subject

  • (a.) Placed or situated under; lying below, or in a lower situation.
  • (a.) Placed under the power of another; specifically (International Law), owing allegiance to a particular sovereign or state; as, Jamaica is subject to Great Britain.
  • (a.) Exposed; liable; prone; disposed; as, a country subject to extreme heat; men subject to temptation.
  • (a.) Obedient; submissive.
  • (a.) That which is placed under the authority, dominion, control, or influence of something else.
  • (a.) Specifically: One who is under the authority of a ruler and is governed by his laws; one who owes allegiance to a sovereign or a sovereign state; as, a subject of Queen Victoria; a British subject; a subject of the United States.
  • (a.) That which is subjected, or submitted to, any physical operation or process; specifically (Anat.), a dead body used for the purpose of dissection.
  • (a.) That which is brought under thought or examination; that which is taken up for discussion, or concerning which anything is said or done.
  • (a.) The person who is treated of; the hero of a piece; the chief character.
  • (a.) That of which anything is affirmed or predicated; the theme of a proposition or discourse; that which is spoken of; as, the nominative case is the subject of the verb.
  • (a.) That in which any quality, attribute, or relation, whether spiritual or material, inheres, or to which any of these appertain; substance; substratum.
  • (a.) Hence, that substance or being which is conscious of its own operations; the mind; the thinking agent or principal; the ego. Cf. Object, n., 2.
  • (n.) The principal theme, or leading thought or phrase, on which a composition or a movement is based.
  • (n.) The incident, scene, figure, group, etc., which it is the aim of the artist to represent.
  • (v. t.) To bring under control, power, or dominion; to make subject; to subordinate; to subdue.
  • (v. t.) To expose; to make obnoxious or liable; as, credulity subjects a person to impositions.
  • (v. t.) To submit; to make accountable.
  • (v. t.) To make subservient.
  • (v. t.) To cause to undergo; as, to subject a substance to a white heat; to subject a person to a rigid test.

Antonyms of Subject


No Antonyms Found.

Homophones of Subject


No Homophones Found.