Sample Sentences for
subdue
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

subdue as a verb as in: subdued the opposition

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She was threatening people with a knife, but police used a Taser to subdue her.
subdue = overcome and control
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    The government subdued the uprising.
    subdued = put down or brought it under control
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    No amount of anger or rage directed at others can subdue it, because guilt is never about them.  (source)
    subdue = overcome (get under control)
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    She was the living spirit of love to soften and attract; I might have become sullen in my study, rought through the ardour of my nature, but that she was there to subdue me to a semblance of her own gentleness.  (source)
    subdue = soften (make less intense)
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Show 10 more with 9 word variations
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    It took less than forty-eight hours to subdue the city.  (source)
    subdue = defeat and bring under control
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    When her old self can be manifest without any controlling force subduing or restraining her, or inciting her to action.  (source)
    subduing = bringing under control
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    Subdued, I fixed my attention upon Reverend Sykes, who seemed to be waiting for me to settle down.  (source)
    Subdued = under control
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    It not only reduces the pain but it subdues the nausea.†  (source)
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    Then why have we suffered such a land as Narnia to remain thus long unsubdued?†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unsubdued means not and reverses the meaning of subdued. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    18:47 It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me.†  (source)
    standard suffix: Today, the suffix "-th" is replaced by "-s", so that where they said "She subdueth" in older English, today we say "She subdues."
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    It is a wonderful subduer, this need of love,—this hunger of the heart,—as peremptory as that other hunger by which Nature forces us to submit to the yoke, and change the face of the world.†  (source)
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    Mask them all, and the mere turn of the head would have shown an unsubduable nature.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unsubduable means not and reverses the meaning of subduable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    The land of Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Newton, Watt, the land of a host of past and present abstract philosophers, natural philosophers, and subduers of Nature and Art in their myriad forms, called to Mr Sparkler to come and take care of it, lest it should perish.†  (source)
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    The generals would have known better how to subdue a raging jabberwock than a mourning child.  (source)
    subdue = get under control
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subdued adjective as in: subdued colors or mood

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    Her dress was a subdued shade of yellow.
    subdued = soft (not bright)
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    Driving back in the fading light, Malcolm seemed oddly subdued.  (source)
    subdued = quiet and less active than normal
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    The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now two missing from their number, Justin and Hermione.  (source)
    subdued = quiet -- perhaps thoughtful
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Show 10 more with 2 word variations
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    When I reach the limb that supports the nest, the humming becomes more distinctive. But it's still oddly subdued if these are tracker jackers.  (source)
    subdued = mild or quiet
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    [subduedly] Come, mother: we must leave them to talk over the arrangements†  (source)
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    T.J., however, was surprisingly subdued when he settled into the wagon; I suppose that at three-thirty in the morning even T.J.'s mouth was tired.  (source)
    subdued = less intense
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    [He looks round apprehensively Seeing no one within earshot he plucks up courage to boom again, but more subduedly]†  (source)
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    Bep is also very subdued.  (source)
    subdued = quiet
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    Two days later, when I arrived for our next meeting, he was subdued.  (source)
    subdued = calm (of low intensity)
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    The assembly murmured in subdued agreement.  (source)
    subdued = quiet (of low intensity)
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    "By the way," he said in an even more subdued voice, "we aren't going to talk about this."  (source)
    subdued = mild
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    The demeanour of the black-uniformed men suddenly became more subdued.  (source)
    subdued = less intense
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    A subdued slam above told that the door of the east gable had been shut with equal vehemence.  (source)
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