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Subdue   /səbdˈu/   Listen
Subdue

verb
(past & past part. subdued; pres. part. subduing)
1.
Put down by force or intimidation.  Synonyms: keep down, quash, reduce, repress, subjugate.  "China keeps down her dissidents very efficiently" , "The rich landowners subjugated the peasants working the land"
2.
To put down by force or authority.  Synonyms: conquer, curb, inhibit, stamp down, suppress.  "Stamp down on littering" , "Conquer one's desires"
3.
Hold within limits and control.  Synonyms: crucify, mortify.  "Mortify the flesh"
4.
Get on top of; deal with successfully.  Synonyms: get over, master, overcome, surmount.
5.
Make subordinate, dependent, or subservient.  Synonym: subordinate.
6.
Correct by punishment or discipline.  Synonyms: chasten, tame.



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"Subdue" Quotes from Famous Books



... assented the commissary; "but 't is also the way to subdue them. They began a war, and they must pay the usual penalty until they are sickened of it. And since the seizures were to be made, 't was too good a chance not to turn an honest penny. Pray Heaven they don't lay down their arms too soon, for I ambition ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

... humorously like his father, except that he was larger-boned and promised to grow into a much bigger man. His hair was uncompromisingly red, and grew in such irregular fashion that the comb was not made which could subdue it. He had the wide-open, fighting blue eyes of the Chief Inspector, and when he smiled the presence of two broken teeth lent him ...
— Tales of Chinatown • Sax Rohmer

... Oughtn't to mind us taking what we can People do not like you to be different Prayers which come so glibly from unbelievers Revolt against a world so murderous and uncharitable Seemed to know that in silence was her strength She never went to meet life Sheer pride; and I can't subdue it Silence was her strength So absorbed in his dismay and concern, that he was almost happy Speak, or keep silent; try to console; try to pretend? The heart of another is a dark forest The talked-about is always the last to hear the talk The tongue ...
— Quotations from the Works of John Galsworthy • David Widger

... against the ordinance of the Romans: for it was not lawfull for anie to take that name vpon him oftener than once in anie one voiage. Moreouer, Claudius tooke from the Britains their armor and weapons, and committed the gouernment of them vnto Plautius, commanding him to endeuour himselfe to subdue the residue. ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (4 of 8) - The Fovrth Booke Of The Historie Of England • Raphael Holinshed

... reign the indomitable race rose again in another branch and under another name, and furnished in the Regent Morton one of the strongest as well as the most questionable figures of a deeply disturbed time. Never was a race more difficult to subdue. ...
— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant

... powerful, must His own affections check, Nor let foul reins of lust Subdue his conquered neck. For though the Indian land Should tremble at thy beck, And though thy dread command Far Thule's isle obey, Unless thou canst withstand And boldly drive away Black care and wretched moan, Thy might is small ...
— The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

... course, compatible with heroic bodily strength and mental firmness; in fact, heroic strength is not conceivable without such delicacy. Elephantine strength may drive its way through a forest, and feel no touch of the boughs, but the white skin of Homer's Atrides would have felt a bent rose leaf, yet subdue its feelings in glow of battle, and behave itself like iron. I do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar animal; but if you think about him carefully, you will find that his non- vulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine nature; not in his ...
— Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society • Sarah Annie Frost

... autumn after the battle at Helganes (A.D. 1045). There he hears the news that Harald Sigurdson, his relation, was come to Svithjod; and moreover that Svein Ulfson and Harald had entered into a friendly bond with each other and gathered together a great force, intending first to subdue Denmark and then Norway. King Magnus then ordered a general levy over all Norway and he soon collected a great army. He hears then that Harald and Svein were come to Denmark and were burning and laying waste the land and that the country people ...
— Heimskringla - The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway • Snorri Sturluson

... to capture and subdue the section of bridge, I was reminded of Victor Hugo's splendid description of the sailor's battle with a ship's gun gone adrift in a night of storm. But there was a difference, I found that Hugo's narrative had stirred me more profoundly than was I stirred ...
— The Mutiny of the Elsinore • Jack London

... Nay, not so fast; subdue these gloomy fears; Behold! he quickly on the roof appears, Bearing the tender child, his jacket warm Flung round her shrinking form to guard from harm. Up with your ladders! Quick! 'tis but a chance! Behold how fast the roaring flames advance! Quick! quick! brave spirits to ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... wanderings, luring him to his death; or, at other times, as the mutinous daughter of revolt. But when he felt, in memory, the warm touch of her hand, the old wildness of his nature responded, he ceased to speculate or care, and he longed only to crush and subdue her by the brute power of the man in him. For good or bad, ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... the more civilized, intellectual and refined we are, the more we ought to conquer and subdue that animal instinct, which represents the will of God in us. And so, in order to mitigate our lot as brutes, we have discovered and made everything, beginning with houses, then exquisite food, sauces, sweetmeats, pastry, drink, stuffs, clothes, ornaments, beds, mattresses, carriages, ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... all he leaves behind him; his dear home rises before his eyes, the voices of his loved ones thrill in his ear, and his bronzed hand is raised to dash away the tear that starts unbidden. But there must be no weakness. Rovers have their feelings, but they must subdue them when two hundred yards have to be traversed over waves that are nearly two inches high. The Rover steps into his boat, resolved to do or die. Now or never! He puts one cushion behind his athletic back, he lights a Regalia—so cool are genuine heroes ...
— Side Lights • James Runciman

... against prison bars, for the longing to annihilate space and stand beside the beloved dead. That quiet band of men whom we sometimes call "The Pathfinders," and who go away across the world to bring the wilderness into line; to smooth the rough, link the severed, subdue the untamed, and carry prosperity to the waste places. The men who cope with strange, deadly diseases; who fight fever swamps, and compel them to carry a railroad across their reluctant bosoms, though the swamps in turn exact a heavy toll of human life; who make the paths that ...
— The Rhodesian • Gertrude Page

... enshrouding vapor. He heard no sounds, he saw no lights. He had no notion of the hour. Wagg had accommodated him with the time of day, when he asked for it, just as Wagg loaned him a razor and doled his rations, persistently and with cunning malice working to subdue the young man's ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... having thus by peaceful means disarmed your resentment, and effected your happiness. But I must confess, you put me to a severe trial. My temper is not less impetuous and fiery than your own, and it is not at all times that I should have been thus able to subdue it. But I considered that in reality the original blame was mine. Though your suspicion was groundless, it was not absurd. We have been trifling too much in the face of danger. I ought not, under the present weakness of our nature and forms of ...
— Caleb Williams - Things As They Are • William Godwin

... to subdue the rage within me. I forgave him, and went to see him again. I had conquered my scorn—my better nature had triumphed—I went to him with all the old tenderness that I had lavished on him in the days gone by. He was startled, even cold, but still I feel I should have won him ...
— If Only etc. • Francis Clement Philips and Augustus Harris

... son of Darius I., whom he succeeded on the throne in 485 B.C.; in his ambition to subdue Greece, which, after suppressing a revolt in Egypt, he in 481 essayed to do with an immense horde of men both by sea and land, he with his army crossed the Hellespont by means of a bridge of boats, was checked for a time at Thermopylae by Leonidas ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change this body of our mortal humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto His immortal and glorious body, a change which He will effectuate by that mighty power according to which He is able to subdue ...
— Why I Preach the Second Coming • Isaac Massey Haldeman

... always. I, who am still young; I, who am on a higher level than his; I must play a part, and subdue the desire one has to let things go on ...
— Light • Henri Barbusse

... idea in talking had been to subdue the tendency towards panic which he had observed in the crowd before him, and to a certain extent he had succeeded. That is to say, the parents of the children in nightgowns had sheepishly herded their flock back into the deck-house, while a few of the other passengers ...
— In Search of El Dorado • Harry Collingwood

... be coincidences and accidents in other matters, but there are none in art; because the essence of art is to sacrifice even the finest irrelevancies, to subordinate the most refractory details, to subdue coincidence and accident into seeming purpose and harmony. And whatever our practical activity, in its identification of time and money, may allow itself in the way of "scamping" and of "shoddy"—art can never plead ...
— Laurus Nobilis - Chapters on Art and Life • Vernon Lee

... a Lion in his path undertook to subdue him by the power of the human eye; and near by was a Rattlesnake engaged in fascinating a ...
— Fantastic Fables • Ambrose Bierce

... Alexanders, Justinians, and Napoleons. There have been those justly called Fathers of their country, and benefactors of their race. Have they, too, sunk to become clods of the valley? The mind, which can look so far before and after—can subdue to its mastery the savages of the forests, and the fiercer elements of Nature—can stamp the creation of its genius upon the living canvas, or the almost breathing, speaking marble—can marshal the invisible vibrations ...
— An Essay on Professional Ethics - Second Edition • George Sharswood

... hear it said that we have only a right to ask God for such gifts as holiness and conformity to His will. This has a truth, a great truth, in it. But it may be overstrained. We are to subdue our wishes, we are to be more anxious for our soul's health than for our bodily wants. We are to present our desires concerning all things in this life, with an implied 'if it be Thy will,' but while ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren

... think Polly will be harmed by Mary's gentleness. She has such a charming voice and Polly might well subdue hers." ...
— Three Little Cousins • Amy E. Blanchard

... of fine horses, but the most valuable of all was Satan, a big black stallion. His pedigree was as long as his flowing tail, and physically he was a perfect specimen. His only drawback was a fiendish temper, which it seemed impossible to subdue. Strangers he would never tolerate, and Mr. Melton seemed to be the only man on the ranch that could go near him without running a chance of being badly kicked or bitten. Even he was always very careful to keep an eye out for mischief whenever in ...
— Bert Wilson in the Rockies • J. W. Duffield

... where Pain and Penance dwell, Where Death in ten-fold vengeance holds his reign, And injured ghosts, yet unavenged, complain: This be my task—ungenerous Britons, you Conspire to murder whom you can't subdue ...
— American Prisoners of the Revolution • Danske Dandridge

... and tenderness of manner which, when he pleased it, could be ineffably bewitching—"teach me some art by which in future rather to detain than to scare away the presence in which a duller age than mine could still recognise the charms that subdue the young." He led her back gently to the seat she had deserted—placed himself next to her—addressed a few cordial queries to Waife about his health and comforts—and then said: "You must not leave me for some days yet. I have written ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... foolish pride!" he cried, beating upon his chest with his large brown hand. "Foolish, foolish pride! How long then will it be ere I can scourge it forth? Am I then never to conquer it? Oh, strong, strong are the ties of flesh, and hard it is to subdue the spirit! I come, friends, of a noble house, and I cannot bring myself to touch this money, even though it be to save ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... coast of this island [Luzon] the distance to Mindoro is about six leagues. This island of Mindoro is sixty leagues in circumference. It contains more than five thousand families, of whom two thousand pay tribute and are pacified. The remainder, for lack of men to subdue them, neglect to pay their tribute. Augustinian and Franciscan friars have been in this district, but all have abandoned it. There is at present one ecclesiastic there, who has the care of about one thousand Christianized ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, V7, 1588-1591 • Emma Helen Blair

... began to go with me among the poor I did not know what love was. I had never felt the power of it, nor did I think of the danger to all of us. When at last it came upon me, and I saw what it meant, I resolved not to see Hester again until God had given me strength to subdue that passion. For days my heart was near breaking. When you asked me to tell you what made me sad, I had not the courage to do it. Then I told you a lie. I did the very thing which I have so much condemned in others. ...
— The Master of Silence • Irving Bacheller

... Ashikaga gave the country fifteen rulers, several of whom were men of great ability: they tried to encourage industry; they cultivated literature and the arts; but they could not give peace. Fresh disputes arose; and lords whom the shogunate could not subdue made war upon each other. To such a condition of terror was the capital reduced that the court nobility fled from it to take refuge with daimyo powerful enough to afford them protection. Robbery became rife throughout the ...
— Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation • Lafcadio Hearn

... absolutely no ground for your fears. If you should meet trouble in any way you have only to send me word and I will be with you. But your imaginary terrors you must yourself subdue. Come, now, be reasonable. You must go back—it is decided. Take note of all landmarks as we did in coming; if messengers are needed it is much better that you inform yourself of all approaches here. Wait for the yacht at Savannah. Buy anything needed for its refurnishing, and see ...
— The Bondwoman • Marah Ellis Ryan

... a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he DELIGHTETH IN MERCY. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of ...
— Voices for the Speechless • Abraham Firth

... born. He felt as if he were preparing his son for burial and had begun to dig his grave. The victim twisted in wild contortions under the father's strong arms; the parent had to make a powerful effort to subdue him under the rope that sank into his flesh.... To have lived so many years only to behold himself at last obliged to perform such a task! To give life to a creature, only to pray that it might be extinguished as ...
— Luna Benamor • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... heathen, to endow her with riches, to enforce her legislation. However his relation to the Pope might be conceived, the Emperor held his office as the first servant of the Church. What then were his practical duties? According to some he was pledged to restore the material unity of Christendom and to subdue all heathen peoples. This childlike ideal of his office no emperor could put into practice. Charles the Great waged no important wars after his coronation; he did not scruple to make peace with the Eastern ...
— Medieval Europe • H. W. C. Davis

... steeds, who bear them with the rapidity of a tempest to avenge their injuries; or, should they be overmatched in fight, they soon transport them beyond the possibility of pursuit. For this reason the proudest monarchs and greatest conquerors have in vain attempted to subdue them. Troops accustomed to the plenty of a cultivated country, are little able to pursue these winged warriors over the whole extent of their sandy wastes. Oppressed with heat, fainting for want of water, and spent with ...
— The History of Sandford and Merton • Thomas Day

... in our intercourse with others. It will not be quite sufficient as regards controlling the temper to merely will, or wish to subdue it. We must also will that when the temptation arises it may be preceded by forethought or followed by regret. As it often happens to a young soldier to be frightened or run away the first time he is ...
— The Mystic Will • Charles Godfrey Leland

... Binder, anxious to subdue the fiend that was rising in his friend's heart, "everybody knows that you are the coachman of Europe, and that it is in the power of no man to wrest the reins from ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... on Nature devotes some—for him—almost vehement pages to this subject, reaches the conclusion that "the only admissible moral theory of Creation is that the Principle of Good cannot at once and altogether subdue the powers of evil" [2]; and in dealing with the same topic in the essay on Theism, while admitting that "appearances do not indicate that contrivance was brought into play purposely to produce pain," ...
— Problems of Immanence - Studies Critical and Constructive • J. Warschauer

... that a love of this order, and from one so richly gifted as Aram; a love, which in substance was truth, and yet in language poetry, could fail wholly to subdue and inthral a girl so young, so romantic, so enthusiastic, as Madeline Lester. How intense and delicious must have been her sense of happiness! In the pure heart of a girl loving for the first time—love is far more ecstatic than in man, inasmuch as it is unfevered by desire—love then ...
— Eugene Aram, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... others of the conquered portions of his empire he may prove himself no more lenient than Mr. Jefferson Davis would toward a Northern State that had declared itself independent of Southern supremacy, could he "subdue" it. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 45, July, 1861 • Various

... inherits from the past fits him better for the original kind of life which man used to live than it does for the kind of life which we are trying to live now. This view makes us see that training a child is, in a very true sense, making him over again. The child must be trained to subdue and control his original impulses. Habits and ideals that will be suitable for life in civilized society must be built up. The doctrine of the Bible in regard to the original nature of man being sinful, and the necessity of regeneration, is fundamentally correct. But this regeneration is ...
— The Science of Human Nature - A Psychology for Beginners • William Henry Pyle

... so rigidly was this regulation applied in our courts of law, that the most trifling moveable abstracted mala fide, subjected the intermeddler to the foregoing consequences, which proved, in many instances, a most rigorous punishment. But this severity was necessary, in order to subdue the undisciplined nature of our people. It is extremely remarkable, that, in proportion to our improvement in manners, this regulation has been gradually softened, and applied by our sovereign ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume V: Miscellaneous Pieces • Samuel Johnson

... would be to extinguish mind itself. Every faculty which the master puts forth to subdue the slave, is met by a corresponding one in the latter."... "Christianity is the highest and most perfect form of civilization. It contains the only great standard of the only true and perfect standard of ...
— The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States • Martin R. Delany

... example, to keep a great way within the bounds of decency and respect. And it is indeed true, that no man is more apt to take fire, upon the least appearance of provocation; which temper he strives to subdue, with the utmost violence upon himself: so that his breast has been seen to heave, and his eyes to sparkle with rage, in those very moments when his words, and the cadence of his voice, were in the humblest and softest manner: perhaps that force upon his nature may cause that insatiable love ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift

... temper, I should often enough have wished to leave this contemptuous world; till now, however, I had almost constantly hoped from the future, and this more from an instinctive feeling that this might be the best, than to subdue by philosophy every too vivid wish for an agreeable present time, because it was altogether so opposed to possibility. For some time, however, alas! it had been otherwise with me; I felt, and especially this evening, more than ever ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors • Various

... daily he increased the length of his walks, getting real satisfaction from the aching of his legs and from the bruising of his unaccustomed feet on the hard road. Like St. Jerome, he had a wish to beat upon his body and subdue the flesh. In turn he was blown upon by the wind, chilled by the winter frost, wet by the rains, and warmed by the sun. In the spring he swam in rivers, lay on sheltered hillsides watching the cattle grazing ...
— Windy McPherson's Son • Sherwood Anderson

... subdue Antwerp by his rhetoric, Alexander proceeded with his bridge. It is impossible not to admire the steadiness and ingenuity with which the Prince persisted in his plans, the courage with which he bore up against ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... "What do you mean by that, Dr. Bates?" she inquired, after a moment in which she managed to subdue ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon

... say to you, my father, the fire is mightier than all your gods of gold and silver and stone and wood, for it can devour them all. Yet I call not the fire god, for it is weaker than the water which can subdue it. Yet again I call not the water god, for the earth swallows it up. Neither call I the earth god, for it is subject to men that till it, and to the sun that gives light to it. Neither call I the sun god, for it is overcome by the darkness of night. But ...
— Old Testament Legends - being stories out of some of the less-known apochryphal - books of the old testament • M. R. James

... observes, "as a governor who had been sent to take charge of a well-regulated city, under the dominion of well-established laws, where there was no danger of every thing running to disorder and ruin; but I ought to be judged as a captain, sent to subdue a numerous and hostile people, of manners and religion opposite to ours, living not in regular towns, but in forests and mountains. It ought to be considered that I have brought all these under subjection to their majesties, giving them ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving

... flames, the shipping in the harbour blazing likewise, all but one bark, which seems to be flying from more than the conflagration. A fine comic-opera situation follows; for while Artamene is trying to subdue the fire he is attacked by the traitor Aribee, general under the King of Assyria, who is himself shut up in a tower and seems to be hopelessly cut off from rescue by the fire. The invincible hero, however, subdues at once the rebel and ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... of no country, asking no protection from any government, acknowledging no man as my brother, not one of the scruples that arrest the powerful, or the obstacles which paralyze the weak, paralyzes or arrests me. I have only two adversaries—I will not say two conquerors, for with perseverance I subdue even them,—they are time and distance. There is a third, and the most terrible—that is my condition as a mortal being. This alone can stop me in my onward career, before I have attained the goal at which I aim, ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... to say as to your own discipline. That you know. But there is one thing. You must face this temptation, and subdue it." ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... horse tamer John S. Rarey, for whose celebrity the world was once not too large. He imagined a gentle art of managing horses by study of their nature and character, and in Europe, as well as America, he showed how he could subdue the fiercest of them to his will, through his patient kindness. In England the ferocious racing colt Cruiser yielded to Rarey, and everywhere the most vicious animals felt his magic. He was the author of a "Treatise on Horse Taming" which had a great ...
— Stories Of Ohio - 1897 • William Dean Howells

... more plainly the lamenting tone Of the dark waters, whilst the surface still Continues motionless and calm, and seems To listen with a melancholy joy, While thus the dim mysterious depths resound; So let me strive to soften and subdue My heart's dark ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... forget the vagaries of an impulsive but generous soul. To subdue my passions shall hereafter be my law. After conquering all the nations in the universe, it is well to conquer ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... pathological reinforcement of the unconscious excitations, and this while the foreconscious is charged with energy and the avenues to motility are open. The guardian is then overpowered, the unconscious excitations subdue the Forec.; through it they dominate our speech and actions, or they enforce the hallucinatory regression, thus governing an apparatus not designed for them by virtue of the attraction exerted by the perceptions on the ...
— Dream Psychology - Psychoanalysis for Beginners • Sigmund Freud

... amusement. American civilization hates war, as such. It values life, because it honors humanity. It values property, because property is for the comfort and good of all, and not merely plunder, to be wasted by a few irresponsible lawgivers. It wants all the forces of its population to subdue Nature to its service. It demands all the intellect of its children for construction, not for destruction. Its business is to build the world's great temple of concord and justice; and for this it is not Dahlgren and Parrott ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 78, April, 1864 • Various

... Moreover, Nathalie's drooping young face, familiar to him through many balls and receptions, showed the mind of the young girl too plainly for mistake. In so far as in her lay, she returned her cousin's love. By December, Captain de Windt had set himself seriously to subdue his little penchant; and such was his success that, as he sat waiting here to-night, his heart was sincerely with Ivan. Yet it was not so unremarkable that when, at a little before eleven, he watched a ...
— The Genius • Margaret Horton Potter

... heart would seem to jump out of the chest; in quick obedience to nature the person is found making a number of quick inhalations, which subdue the heart and pacify the will by diversion ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 275 • Various

... shown, let us say, by Virgil. You remember that splendid passage in the Sixth Book of the AEneid where the Romans are called to remember that it is their mission 'to crown Peace with Law, to spare the humbled, and to subdue and tame the proud.' Might not sucn a noble doctrine have detached the Germans a little from their blind devotion to the Hohenzollern-Hollweg conception of the modern pinchbeck German Empire—a predatory ...
— The Valley of Vision • Henry Van Dyke

... of Hanover was more afraid of the Prussian monarch than of the most christian king, knowing with what ease and rapidity this enterprising neighbour could, in a few days, subdue ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... it must provoke the King, and that party that removed him. He seems to doubt what the King of France will do, in case an accommodation shall be made between Spain and him for Flanders, for then he will have nothing more easy to do with his army than to subdue us. Parted with him at White Hall, and, there I took coach and took up my wife and Mercer, and so home and I to the office, where ended my letters, and then to my chamber with my boy to lay up some papers and things that lay out of order against to-morrow, to make it clear against the feast ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... of me," I here put in with a triumphant air I could not subdue, "was only simulated? I shall know what to think of you hereafter. But don't stop, go on, this is all deeply ...
— That Affair Next Door • Anna Katharine Green

... earnestness of his preachings pretended to turn prophet, and confidently to predict future events. He spoke of Charles VIII of France as the Cyrus who should deliver Italy, and subdue the nations before him; and even named the spring of the year 1498 as the period that should see ...
— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin

... cut short above the ears, and, whether it rained or snowed, he always went without a hat. He was delightful among friends, but terrible to his enemies; just to his subjects; ready to play false with the unfaithful, and willing to overcome by fraud those whom he desired to subdue, because he was wont to say that it was the victory that brought the glory, not the methods of achieving it. No one was bolder in facing danger, none more prudent in extricating himself. He was accustomed to say that men ought to attempt everything and fear nothing; that God is a lover of strong ...
— The Prince • Niccolo Machiavelli

... dull tread of many feet and the clicking of accoutrements that told of the march of a column of troops along the pike, but there was no other sound—not even the shout of a teamster to his mules or the crack of a whip. All the surroundings were so impressive as to subdue the most boisterously profane men. In expressing their dissatisfaction with the situation they were always careful to mutter their curses in a tone so low as to be inaudible a short distance away, for, looking to ...
— The Battle of Spring Hill, Tennessee - read after the stated meeting held February 2d, 1907 • John K. Shellenberger

... weppings might get you into trouble at Red Dog, and your money's a temptation to the evilly disposed. I think you said your address was San Francisco. I shall endeavor to call." It may be stated here that Tennessee had a fine flow of humor, which no business preoccupation could wholly subdue. ...
— Tennessee's Partner • Bret Harte

... down upon the stiff-necked and rebellious people, whom long centuries of chastisement could not subdue, and lo! a remnant, broken-hearted and contrite, humbly confessing that 'all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that they are all fading as a leaf, and that their iniquities, like the wind, have carried them away.' They long for the personal ...
— The Mark of the Beast • Sidney Watson

... in reason all government without the consent of the governed is slavery. But, in fact, eleven men well armed will certainly subdue one single man ...
— The Art of Letters • Robert Lynd

... to be subdued without resistance; but now that their first awe of the Spaniards has died away, and they have nerved themselves to take up arms, you will find that they are brave. I see nothing but trouble before us. Cortez feels confident that he can easily repulse any attack, and subdue the city and the country round; but I do not ...
— By Right of Conquest - Or, With Cortez in Mexico • G. A. Henty

... to flee from the village carried the news of these proceedings to Montreal; but Sir John Colborne was unwilling to take any steps to subdue the Patriotes of St Eustache until the insurrection on the Richelieu had been thoroughly crushed. All he did was to send a detachment of volunteers to guard the Bord a Plouffe bridge at the northern end of ...
— The 'Patriotes' of '37 - A Chronicle of the Lower Canada Rebellion • Alfred D. Decelles

... subdue him, how afeard he'll be, you can't goad him into trying to throw me. Talk about Rarey breaking that old horse Cruiser, that used to ate his keeper every day for breakfast, he couldn't compare ...
— The Cave in the Mountain • Lieut. R. H. Jayne

... hands of S. Mayeul, by whose appointment he was made his coadjutor in 991, though only twenty-nine years of age, and from the death of S. Mayeul in 994, our saint was charged with the entire government of that great abbey. He labored to subdue his carnal appetites by rigorous fasting, wearing hair-cloth next his skin, and studded iron chains. Notwithstanding those austerities practised on himself, his carriage to others was most mild and humane. It was usual with him to say, that of two extremes, ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... ever could His principles subdue, His queen and country too he loved,— Was loyal and was true: He craved no boon from royalty, Nor wished their pomp to share, Far nobler is the soul of him, ...
— Revised Edition of Poems • William Wright

... entire nature, and therefore upon his Weltschmerz. Whereas in their hopeless loves, Hoelderlin and to an even greater extent Goethe, struggled through to the point of renunciation, Lenau constantly retrogrades, and allows his baser sensual instincts more and more to control him. He promises to subdue his wild outbursts a little,[101] and when he fails he tries to explain,[102] to apologize.[103] If with Hoelderlin love was to a predominating degree a thing of the soul, it was with Lenau in an equal measure a matter ...
— Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry • Wilhelm Alfred Braun

... light-hearted youth! Poor fellow! his high spirit had been severely tried that day, but evidently not tamed, though the blood on the back of his shirt showed that his drivers had made vigorous attempts to subdue him. During the heat of the day Lucien had grown faint from toil and hunger, and had received a cruel lash from one of their guardians. This had roused Mariano. He had sprung to avenge the blow, had been seized by three powerful men, lashed until he became insensible, ...
— The Pirate City - An Algerine Tale • R.M. Ballantyne

... wid Father Le Claire?" asked O'mie. "Let's lave the baste to him. Phil, whin does your padre and his Company start to subdue the rebillious South?" ...
— The Price of the Prairie - A Story of Kansas • Margaret Hill McCarter

... patience under suffering, All promised us an opening day Most fair, and told that to subdue thee Would need but ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller

... In order to subdue her stubborn spirit, the Portuguese placed a king of their own choosing upon the throne of Angola. This exasperated Zhinga to such a degree, that she vowed everlasting hatred against her enemies, and publicly abjured their religion. ...
— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child

... creed, mutations of opinion, are to him but the clouds and meteors of a stormy sky. The schemes and struggles of mankind are, in his thinking, but the anxieties of pigmies and the fantastical achievements of apes. Nothing can subdue him. He laughs alike at loss of fortune, loss of friends, loss of character. The deeds and thoughts of men are tor him equally indifferent. He does not mingle in their paths of callous bustle, or hold himself responsible to the ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli

... endeavoring to subdue the excitement, and having to some extent succeeded, he made a signal to Dr. Rutherford, who came forward to address the negroes. Throwing his shoulders back and looking around with dignity, he exclaimed, "I am the great ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88 • Various

... never do! Why should she be so perturbed! in this matter at least there could be no difference between them! Her noble Alister would be as much shocked as herself at the news! Could the woman be a lady, grown on such a hothed! Yet, alas! love could tempt far—could subdue the impossible! ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... conqueror in peace as in war, and suspecting the intentions of Bernadotte, had demanded from Sweden several supplies of rigging for his Brest fleet, and the despatch of a body of troops, which were to be in his pay; in this manner weakening his allies to subdue his enemies, so as to allow him to be the master of both. He also required that colonial produce should be subjected in Sweden, the same as in France, to a duty of five per cent. It is even affirmed that he applied to Bernadotte ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur

... Venice could not show a cheek Of a tint so lustrous meek. Never such an ambuscade As of brier and leaf displayed For my little damask maid. I had rather wear her grace Than an earl's distinguished face; I had rather dwell like her Than be Duke of Exeter Royalty enough for me To subdue the bumble-bee! ...
— Poems: Three Series, Complete • Emily Dickinson

... apparent even to my own perception. But while my lids remained thus shut, I ran over in my mind my reason for so shutting them. It was an impulsive movement to gain time for thought—to make sure that my vision had not deceived me—to calm and subdue my fancy for a more sober and more certain gaze. In a very few moments I again looked fixedly ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... would make free; she loves not freedom who would enslave: she is herself a slave. Every life, every will, every heart that came within your ken, you have sought to subdue: you are the slave of every slave you have made—such a slave that you do not know it!—See your ...
— Lilith • George MacDonald

... to see the country in possession of a government which, they would perceive, strove to promote the welfare and prosperity of the mountaineers, as well as the inhabitants of the plains; and their own interest would thus gradually subdue the antipathy resulting from ...
— An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa • Abd Salam Shabeeny

... he exclaims, "I shall subdue thee after all! Under the shield of the Pope, the law cannot reach thee; but ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... intended to subdue this bevy of giggling maidens and cast a blight upon their levity, stood behind his counter like a soldier making a last stand in a third line trench, while Pepsy, captivated by the mirthful assailants, ...
— Pee-wee Harris • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... there in the field, togither with his brother Bergion, and the most part of all their whole armie. This was the end of Albion, and his brother Bergion, by the valiant prowesse of Hercules, who as one appointed by Gods prouidence to subdue the cruell & vnmercifull tyrants, spent his time to the benefit of mankind, deliuering the oppressed from the heauie yoke of miserable thraldome, in euerie place where ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (1 of 8) • Raphael Holinshed

... were mingled with their talk, and many a smothered sob bespoke a desperate effort to subdue their common sorrow. At last they became quieter, then I heard ...
— The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch • Talbot Baines Reed

... I, dear; horribly afraid. Between ourselves, I'm in a deadly funk of it. But "the brave man is not he that feels no fear"; and I believe the same principle applies almost equally to the brave woman. I mean "that fear to subdue" as far as I am able. The Maharajah says I shall be the first girl who has ever gone tiger-hunting. I'm frightened out of my life. I never held a gun in my born days before. But, Elsie, recollect, this is splendid journalism! I intend ...
— Miss Cayley's Adventures • Grant Allen

... escape from the clasp Of the seeker who strives but those shadows to grasp— So long as Man dreams of some Age in this life When the Right and the Good will all evil subdue; For the Right and the Good lead us ever to strife, And wherever they lead us, the Fiend ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. III • Kuno Francke (Editor-in-Chief)

... explanation restored his tranquillity, and he passed to a more familiar topic of conversation. "What is your age?" said he to the cadi. "Fifty years." "It would be the age of my eldest son: you see me here," continued Timur, "a poor, lame, decrepit mortal. Yet by my arms has the Almighty been pleased to subdue the kingdoms of Iran, Turan, and the Indies. I am not a man of blood; and God is my witness that in all my wars I have never been the aggressor, and that my enemies have always been the authors of their ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various

... origin of things in which the city figured as the most venerable in the world. After the period of the creating gods, there followed immediately, according to the current legends, two or three generations of minor deities—heroes of light and flame—who had learned how to subdue fire and turn it to their needs; then a race of giants, associated with the giant peaks of Kasios, Lebanon, Hermon, and Brathy;* after which were born two male children—twins: Samem-rum, the lord of ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... Journal de Rigaud. He mistakes in calling the log wall of the fort a palisade.] It began to rain, and he determined to wait till morning. That the commander of seven hundred French and Indians should resort to such elaborate devices to subdue a sergeant, seven militia-men, and a minister,—for this was now the effective strength of the besieged,—was no small compliment to the ...
— A Half-Century of Conflict, Volume II • Francis Parkman

... easily have excused us from, since, at his command, the earth would readily have poured forth all her treasures, without our inconsiderable assistance; but, if the severest labour cannot sufficiently subdue the malignity of human nature, what plots and machinations, what wars, rapine, and devastation, what profligacy and licentiousness, must have been the consequences of universal idleness! So that labour ought only to be looked ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson

... to dread that expression, persuasion hardened into desperate pleading. It woke in her a shocked repugnance, as though something had been revealed to her that she had no right to see. She felt shame for him, that he must beg where a man should conquer and subdue. ...
— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner

... John Effingham, and he admitted it with regret, for Eve and her future happiness had got to be closely associated, in his mind, with the character and conduct of the young man; but when Paul took the papers, steadily, and by an effort seemed to subdue all unpleasant feelings, the calm dignity with which he read them completely effaced the disagreeable distrust. It was then John Effingham remembered that he had once believed Paul himself might be the fruits of the heartless indiscretion he condemned. Commiseration ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper

... the race in time of chill and rigor, And from the deeps that lie within its being Draws to it what alone can nourish, freeing Its powers to full prophecy of vigor,— So I divined the unseen stir in you Of nature's might that you could not subdue; It was so strong, from sire to son surviving, In mystery mute ...
— Poems and Songs • Bjornstjerne Bjornson

... vanity! Shall the large limit of fair Brittany {262b} By me be overthrown? and shall I not Master this little mansion of myself? Give me an armour of eternal steel; I go to conquer kings. And shall I then Subdue myself, and be my enemy's friend? It must not be.—Come, boy, forward, advance! Let's with our colours sweep the air ...
— A Study of Shakespeare • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... Egypt, being, in fact, one natural chain of fortresses, was the key to Phoenicia and Syria. It was an eagle's eyrie by the side of a pen of fowls. It must not be left defenceless for a single year. Tyre and Gaza had been taken; so no danger was to be apprehended from the seaboard: but to subdue the Judean mountaineers, a race whose past sufferings had hardened them in a dogged fanaticism of courage and endurance, would be a long and sanguinary task. It was better to make terms with them; to employ them as friendly warders of their own mountain ...
— Alexandria and her Schools • Charles Kingsley

... roars and yells, hoarser howls and sharper wrestling, snapping sounds told me what was going on while I tried to subdue Moze. I had a grim thought that I would just as lief have had hold of the lioness. The hound presently stopped his plunging which gave me an opportunity to look about. The little space was smoky with a smoke of dust. I saw ...
— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey

... agriculture, swallow up the property of insolvents to the injury of other creditors, tend to the subversion of government by vesting in the hands of the wealthy and aristocratic classes powerful engines to corrupt and subdue republican notions, relieve the wealthy stockholder from an equal share of contribution to the public service, and proportionally enhance the tax on the hard earnings of the farmer, mechanic and labourer." He spoke of the "intrigue and hollow pretences" of applicants, insisting that the ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander

... rest, now they have landed. They belong to a powerful tribe in Africa, and are rarely captured and sold to the factories on the coast. They are sturdy and serviceable fellows, but they must be humored. The lash will not subdue them. They bring a high price ...
— Due South or Cuba Past and Present • Maturin M. Ballou

... which {79} is in the underworld. This describes the successive hours of the night, each hour fenced off with gates which are guarded by monsters. At each gate the right spells must be uttered to subdue the evil powers, and so pass through with the sun. The older beliefs in Seker, the god of the silent land, and Osiris, the king of the blessed world, are fitted in to the newer system by allotting ...
— The Religion of Ancient Egypt • W. M. Flinders Petrie

... grammatical tongue. Such strains as those of the polished Pope or the sublimer Milton were beyond his power, less from deficiency of genius than from lack of language: he could, indeed, write English with ease and fluency; but when he desired to be tender or impassioned, to persuade or subdue, he had recourse to the Scottish, ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... the name of Fortune, Destiny or Chance. At the present hour we are feeding it still as a blind man might feed the lion that at last shall devour him. Soon perhaps the lion will be seen by us in its true light, and we shall then learn how to subdue him. ...
— The Buried Temple • Maurice Maeterlinck

... express orders, and smuggled their forbidden furs into the trading-posts. Sometimes they spent whole seasons, even years, among the savages, taking to wife red women. Lawless fellows as these were, they helped mightily to extend French influence and subdue the continent {190} to the white man's rule. Daring explorers, they penetrated remote regions, hobnobbed with the natives, and brought back accounts ...
— French Pathfinders in North America • William Henry Johnson

... God, the great Architect of the universe, the giver of all good gifts and graces! In Thy name we have assembled and in Thy name we desire to proceed in all our doings. Grant that the sublime principles of Freemasonry may so subdue every discordant passion within us, so harmonize and enrich our hearts with Thine own love and goodness, that the Lodge at this time may humbly reflect that order and beauty which reign ...
— Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason • George Thornburgh

... progressive physician learns to work more and more along preventive lines. The slogan of modern medical science is, "Kill the germ and cure the disease." The usual procedure is to wait until acute or chronic diseases have fully developed, and then, if possible, to subdue them by means of drugs, surgical operations, and by means of the morbid products of disease, in the form of serums, antitoxins, vaccines, etc. The combative method fights disease with disease, poison with poison, ...
— Nature Cure • Henry Lindlahr

... dingy walls that have made for you so long a home. The old broken expectancies, the days of glee, the triumphs, the rivalries, the defeats, the friendships, are recalled with a fluttering of the heart that pride cannot wholly subdue. You step upon the chapel-porch in the quiet of the night as you would step on the graves of friends. You pace back and forth in the wan moonlight, dreaming of that dim life which opens wide and long from the morrow. The width and length oppress you: they crush down your struggling self-consciousness ...
— Dream Life - A Fable Of The Seasons • Donald G. Mitchell

... these Emotions Time to arrive at such a Height, as to subdue Love, Zeokinizul very carefully avoided speaking one Word to Nasica of his Passion for her. However, as often as he happen'd to see her, he never fail'd passing a Compliment upon her Beauty, but it was always with such Calmness and ...
— The Amours of Zeokinizul, King of the Kofirans - Translated from the Arabic of the famous Traveller Krinelbol • Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crbillon

... carry a message for his master wherever his master willed. He must go instantly and at full speed; he must leap any obstacle; he must turn away from his own kind if they should entice him to linger on the way; he must subdue all his natural desires and instincts entirely to his master's desires; he must be indifferent to danger. And to secure this he was fired over by numbers of men, difficulties were set for him, and he was distracted from his straight ...
— The Golden Fountain - or, The Soul's Love for God. Being some Thoughts and - Confessions of One of His Lovers • Lilian Staveley

... pleased Oleg to find this powerful kingdom founded in the land which he had set out to subdue. He determined that Kief should be his, and in 882 made his way to its vicinity. But it was easier to reach than to take. Its rulers were brave, their Varangian followers were courageous, the city was strong. Oleg, doubting his power to win it by force ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... as to Cuba. It enforced the renunciation of Spanish sovereignty there, but, in spite of the most earnest Spanish efforts, it refused to accept American sovereignty. It loaded neither ourselves nor the Cubans with the so-called Cuban debts, incurred by Spain in the efforts to subdue them. It involved us in no complications, either in the West Indies or in the East, as to contracts or claims or religious establishments. It dealt liberally with a fallen foe—giving him a generous lump sum that ...
— Problems of Expansion - As Considered In Papers and Addresses • Whitelaw Reid

... packs filled with first-aid outfits, carrying emergency rations, with the "tin hats" on their heads and with rifles firmly grasped, over the top went the Khaki Boys, and thousands like them, in another attempt to subdue the Boche enemy. ...
— The Khaki Boys Over the Top - Doing and Daring for Uncle Sam • Gordon Bates

... MANNERS was, so he resign'd his breath, If in a glorious, then a timely death. Cease, then, that grief, and let those tears subside; If Passion rule us, be that passion pride; If Reason, reason bids us strive to raise Our fallen hearts, and be like him we praise; Or if Affection still the soul subdue, Bring all his virtues, all his worth in view, And let Affection find its comfort too: For how can Grief so deeply wound the heart, When Admiration claims so large a part? Grief is a foe—expel him then thy soul; Let ...
— The Village and The Newspaper • George Crabbe

... shoulder, until her whole arm began to thresh about like a flail in a most alarming way. The action became so violent at last that she called upon me for aid. I found it exceedingly difficult to subdue her agitation and silence her rebellious limb, but I did finally succeed. Nor was this all. A few moments later, while helping us in the singing, my friend suddenly stopped singing and began to laugh in a deep, guttural fashion, and presently ...
— The Shadow World • Hamlin Garland

... remit, relent, take in sail. moderate, soften, mitigate, temper, accoy|; attemper[obs3], contemper[obs3]; mollify, lenify[obs3], dulcify[obs3], dull, take off the edge, blunt, obtund[obs3], sheathe, subdue, chasten; sober down, tone down, smooth down; weaken &c. 160; lessen &c. (decrease) 36; check palliate. tranquilize, pacify, assuage, appease, swag, lull, soothe, compose, still, calm, calm down, cool, quiet, hush, quell, sober, pacify, tame, damp, lay, allay, rebate, slacken, smooth, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... Loue, if thou wilt proue a Conqueror, Subdue thys Tyrant euer martyring mee; And but appoint me for her Tormentor, Then for a Monarch will I honour thee. My hart shall be the prison for my fayre; Ile fetter her in chaines of purest loue, My sighs shall stop the passage of the ayre: This punishment the pittilesse ...
— Minor Poems of Michael Drayton • Michael Drayton



Words linked to "Subdue" :   reduce, hush, crucify, dampen, choke back, choke down, shut up, lower, refrain, quieten, still, abstain, smother, moderate, quench, desist, shell, stifle, burke, bulldog, contain, conquer, beat, vanquish, modify, blink, check, hold, change, surmount, strangle, quash, wink, oppress, trounce, quell, squelch, hold in, choke off, blink away, silence, keep down, beat out, muffle, alter, hush up, crush, control, lour



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