All 11 Uses of
subdue
in
Lord Jim
- 'Well, Ruthvel says he was giving him a severe lecture—on official morality, I suppose—when he heard a kind of subdued commotion at his back, and turning his head he saw, in his own words, something round and enormous, resembling a sixteen-hundred-weight sugar-hogshead wrapped in striped flannelette, up-ended in the middle of the large floor space in the office.†
Chpt 5
- He spoke in a subdued tone, without looking at me, one hand on each side of his face.†
Chpt 20
- Did I think so? he asked, by no means subdued, and with a smile in which I seemed to detect suddenly something insolent.†
Chpt 23
- However, Sura was a professional sorcerer also, who attended all the rice sowings and reapings for miles around for the purpose of subduing the stubborn souls of things.†
Chpt 27 *
- The white man had obtained it, I was told, partly by the exercise of his wonderful strength and partly by cunning, from the ruler of a distant country, whence he had fled instantly, arriving in Patusan in utmost distress, but frightening the people by his extreme ferocity, which nothing seemed able to subdue.†
Chpt 28
- Her vigilant affection had an intensity that made it almost perceptible to the senses; it seemed actually to exist in the ambient matter of space, to envelop him like a peculiar fragrance, to dwell in the sunshine like a tremulous, subdued, and impassioned note.†
Chpt 29
- We subdued our tones to a mysterious pitch.†
Chpt 33
- His surliness, too, was subdued into puzzled humility, as though he had seen the failure of a potent charm in a supreme moment.†
Chpt 37
- Of the faithful servant, uncomprehending as the rest of them, it is the fidelity alone that comes into play; a fidelity and a belief in his lord so strong that even amazement is subdued to a sort of saddened acceptance of a mysterious failure.†
Chpt 42
- In the darkness of the courtyard could be heard the subdued whispering, shuffling noise of many people.†
Chpt 43
- Men crouched in many little knots under a subdued murmur of early morning talk.†
Chpt 44
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