All 18 Uses of
subdue
in
Bleak House
- In such mouths I might have coupled it with an apt quotation from one of Shakespeare's sonnets: "My nature is subdued To what it works in, like the dyer's hand: Pity me, then, and wish I were renewed!"†
Chpt Pref.
- But Rosa is in the distance, behind the housekeeper; and my Lady, who has not subdued the quickness of her observation, whatever else she may have conquered, asks, "Who is that girl?"†
Chpt 10-12
- He wound up this vehement declaration by looking round upon us with a most agreeable smile and suddenly thundering, "Ha, ha, ha!" over and over again, until anybody else might have been expected to be quite subdued by the exertion.†
Chpt 13-15
- The truth is," in a subdued voice and trembling, "we have had death here.†
Chpt 13-15
- The little orphan girl had spoken of their father and their mother as if all that sorrow were subdued by the necessity of taking courage, and by her childish importance in being able to work, and by her bustling busy way.†
Chpt 13-15
- He subdued it as before, and it was gone in an instant; but it had been there and it had come so swiftly upon my words that I felt as if they had given him a shock.†
Chpt 16-18
- The windows, heavily shaded by trees, admitted a subdued light that made the faces around me pale, and darkened the old brasses in the pavement and the time and damp-worn monuments, and rendered the sunshine in the little porch, where a monotonous ringer was working at the bell, inestimably bright.†
Chpt 16-18
- Without appearing to notice it, in her ardour she still pressed herself upon me, speaking in a rapid subdued voice, though always with a certain grace and propriety.†
Chpt 22-24
- His voice had faded, with the old expression of his face, with his strength, with his anger, with his resistance to the wrongs that had at last subdued him.†
Chpt 22-24
- Grandfather Smallweed refers to Phil with a glance of considerable terror and a half-subdued "O Lord!†
Chpt 25-27
- "The question is," says Mr. Tulkinghorn in his methodical, subdued, uninterested way, "first, whether you have any of Captain Hawdon's writing?"†
Chpt 25-27
- "Mat," says the trooper in a subdued voice, addressing him but still looking at his wife, "I am sorry you take it so much to heart, because I do hope it's not so bad as that comes to.†
Chpt 34-36
- He was silent for a little while before he replied in a subdued voice, "Esther, I am sure you know that I am not a mean fellow and that I have some sense of suspicion and distrust being poor qualities in one of my years."†
Chpt 37-39
- He tells her, in acknowledgment of her many subdued thanks, that she is very welcome, gives her good day, and walks away.†
Chpt 46-48
- But so long accustomed to suppress emotion and keep down reality, so long schooled for her own purposes in that destructive school which shuts up the natural feelings of the heart like flies in amber and spreads one uniform and dreary gloss over the good and bad, the feeling and the unfeeling, the sensible and the senseless, she had subdued even her wonder until now.†
Chpt 55-57
- Something to this general purpose I made out, but I was thrown into such a tumult of alarm, and hurry and distress, that in spite of every effort I could make to subdue my agitation, I did not seem, to myself, fully to recover my right mind until hours had passed.†
Chpt 55-57 *
- A third man in uniform, whom Mr. Bucket called and to whom he whispered his instructions, went out; and then the two others advised together while one wrote from Mr. Bucket's subdued dictation.†
Chpt 55-57
- Early in the afternoon the subdued sound of his heavy military trot is heard on the turf in the avenue as he rides on with imaginary clank and jingle of accoutrements under the old elm-trees.†
Chpt 61-63
Definition:
-
(subdue as a verb as in: subdued the opposition) to control, prevent, or make less intense -- sometimes through forceThe exact meaning of subdue depends upon its context. For example:
- "subdued a nation" -- defeated militarily and brought under control
- "subdued the fever" -- made it less intense or defeated it
- "subdued her enthusiasm" -- made it less intense
- "subdued her fears" -- made them less intense or overcame them
- "subdued my emotions" -- kept them under control
- "subdued the crowd" -- quieted or controlled it