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Subject   /səbdʒˈɛkt/  /sˈəbdʒɪkt/   Listen
noun
Subject  n.  
1.
That which is placed under the authority, dominion, control, or influence of something else.
2.
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. "Was never subject longed to be a king, As I do long and wish to be a subject." "The subject must obey his prince, because God commands it, human laws require it." Note: In international law, the term subject is convertible with citizen.
3.
That which is subjected, or submitted to, any physical operation or process; specifically (Anat.), a dead body used for the purpose of dissection.
4.
That which is brought under thought or examination; that which is taken up for discussion, or concerning which anything is said or done. "This subject for heroic song." "Make choice of a subject, beautiful and noble, which... shall afford an ample field of matter wherein to expatiate." "The unhappy subject of these quarrels."
5.
The person who is treated of; the hero of a piece; the chief character. "Writers of particular lives... are apt to be prejudiced in favor of their subject."
6.
(Logic & Gram.) 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. "The subject of a proposition is that concerning which anything is affirmed or denied."
7.
That in which any quality, attribute, or relation, whether spiritual or material, inheres, or to which any of these appertain; substance; substratum. "That which manifests its qualities in other words, that in which the appearing causes inhere, that to which they belong is called their subject or substance, or substratum."
8.
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. "The philosophers of mind have, in a manner, usurped and appropriated this expression to themselves. Accordingly, in their hands, the phrases conscious or thinking subject, and subject, mean precisely the same thing."
9.
(Mus.) The principal theme, or leading thought or phrase, on which a composition or a movement is based. "The earliest known form of subject is the ecclesiastical cantus firmus, or plain song."
10.
(Fine Arts) The incident, scene, figure, group, etc., which it is the aim of the artist to represent.



verb
Subject  v. t.  (past & past part. subjected; pres. part. subjecting)  
1.
To bring under control, power, or dominion; to make subject; to subordinate; to subdue. "Firmness of mind that subjects every gratification of sense to the rule of right reason." "In one short view subjected to our eye, Gods, emperors, heroes, sages, beauties, lie."
2.
To expose; to make obnoxious or liable; as, credulity subjects a person to impositions.
3.
To submit; to make accountable. "God is not bound to subject his ways of operation to the scrutiny of our thoughts."
4.
To make subservient. "Subjected to his service angel wings."
5.
To cause to undergo; as, to subject a substance to a white heat; to subject a person to a rigid test.



adjective
Subject  adj.  
1.
Placed or situated under; lying below, or in a lower situation. (Obs.)
2.
Placed under the power of another; specifically (International Law), owing allegiance to a particular sovereign or state; as, Jamaica is subject to Great Britain. "Esau was never subject to Jacob."
3.
Exposed; liable; prone; disposed; as, a country subject to extreme heat; men subject to temptation. "All human things are subject to decay."
4.
Obedient; submissive. "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities."
Synonyms: Liable; subordinate; inferior; obnoxious; exposed. See Liable.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Subject" Quotes from Famous Books



... why the Renaissance especially—or why in the Renaissance these six poets alone—should have formed the subject of my first endeavour, I can only tell you that in so vast a province, whereof the most ample leisure could not in a lifetime exhaust a tithe, Chance, that happy Goddess, led me ...
— Avril - Being Essays on the Poetry of the French Renaissance • H. Belloc

... He might have remarked, "Yet now, if you had the chance, you would enslave yourself again!" but, not being of an argumentative turn of mind, he merely shook his head and changed the subject. It was well, for Hockins was one of those people who, "if convinced against their will, remain of the same ...
— The Fugitives - The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar • R.M. Ballantyne

... your future husband at the hands either of the law or of the people? Or is it, perhaps, that since you have seen his true nature revealed in the murder of poor Philippe, you have changed your views on the subject of becoming Marquise ...
— Scaramouche - A Romance of the French Revolution • Rafael Sabatini

... successors were being taught from the Book of Genesis, just as Edward VI was (and Edward VII too, for that matter). Nobody who knew the theory was adding anything to it. This slump not only heightened the impression of entire novelty when Darwin brought the subject to the front again: it probably prevented him from realizing how much had been done before, even by his own grandfather, to whom he was accused of being unjust. Besides, he was not really carrying on the family business. He was an entirely original worker; and he was on a new tack, as we shall ...
— Back to Methuselah • George Bernard Shaw

... S. Conway, July 20.-Happiness at receiving a letter of confidence. Advice on the subject of an early attachment. Arguments for breaking off the acquaintance. Offer of the immediate use of ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole


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