Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Subdued   /səbdˈud/   Listen
Subdued

adjective
1.
In a softened tone.  Synonyms: hushed, muted, quiet.  "Muted trumpets" , "A subdued whisper" , "A quiet reprimand"
2.
Restrained in style or quality.  Synonyms: low-key, low-keyed.
3.
Quieted and brought under control.
4.
Not brilliant or glaring.  Synonym: soft.  "Soft pastel colors" , "Subdued lighting"
5.
Lacking in light; not bright or harsh.  Synonym: dim.  "Subdued lights and soft music"



Related search:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Subdued" Quotes from Famous Books



... boat and at the sea, and then, in the stayed subdued manner that had become too habitual to her, she ...
— The Mermaid - A Love Tale • Lily Dougall

... time in their acquaintance, the good soul kneeled down and prayed aloud for this man. And this time he prayed at length with ardor and tenderness unspeakable. He prayed as for a brother on the brink of a precipice. He wrestled with Heaven; and ere he concluded he heard a subdued sound near him, and it was poor Robinson, who, touched and penetrated by such angelic love, and awestruck to hear a good man pour out his very soul at the mercy-seat of Heaven, had crept timidly to his side and knelt there, bearing his mute ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... were sporting in the sunbeams; the melancholy plaint of the ringdove came out sweetly from the trees, mingled with the songs of other birds, and the still sweeter voice of some happy groups of children at play in the distance. The light of the hour, in its subdued but golden tone, fell with singular clearness upon all nature, giving to it that tranquil beauty which makes every thing the eye rests upon glide with quiet rapture into the heart. The moth butterflies ...
— Jane Sinclair; Or, The Fawn Of Springvale - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... Morley's card was brought up and, seeing Sir William look rather subdued, I told the servant to ask him to wait in my boudoir for a few minutes and assured my guest that I was in no hurry for him to go; but Harcourt began to fidget about and after a little he insisted on John Morley coming up. We ...
— Margot Asquith, An Autobiography: Volumes I & II • Margot Asquith

... affair in the court of heaven. The want of this was the reason that the deliverance of Israel did linger so long in former times. "O," says he, "that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him; but their time should have endured ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... They are coming. (Quite subdued.) Later she married her husband out of spite, because she did not ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various

... fever. Mr. Hale was reading aloud. Margaret was working on a low stool by her mother's side. Her heart fluttered, if his did not, at this interview. But he took no notice of her, hardly of Mr. Hale himself; he went up straight with his basket to Mrs. Hale, and said, in that subdued and gentle tone, which is so touching when used by a robust man in full health, ...
— North and South • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... murmurs a subdued voice. "There are some steps, Mr. Laudersdale. Here we are; but it's dark as Erebus. Give me your hand; I'm half afraid; after that spectre that walked the water just now, these shadows are not altogether agreeable. ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various

... sofa had been drawn up to the fire and a bed made for him there. Now, however, he was at last sleeping peacefully in his little upstairs room, and the whole house was quiet, though no one else had gone to bed, and there was everywhere a subdued feeling of excitement. ...
— The Return of Peter Grimm - Novelised From the Play • David Belasco

... Charlie. He generally brought his dinner now to eat beside Charlie. The first time the Bible was brought out, when they had finished, which required a little courage at first, Bob got up and sauntered away; the second time he sat still and whistled popular song tunes in a subdued tone, while Charlie read to himself; the third time he sat quietly; the fourth day the Bible was brought out he shuffled about uneasily, and at last said, "You may as well read out if you must read; it's dull sitting here without anybody to ...
— Charlie Scott - or, There's Time Enough • Unknown

... across the head with his spear. Shaking his head and growling, the lion at last moved off again in the direction they had been traveling; but it was an hour before he ceased to sulk. He was very hungry—half famished in fact—and consequently of an ugly temper, yet so thoroughly subdued by Tarzan's heroic methods of lion taming that he was presently pacing along at the ape-man's side like ...
— Tarzan the Untamed • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... we hoisted our sails. In less than an hour we were pretty close to the passage; for, although we could not see it owing to the rain, we felt the force of the swift current running out, and could hear the subdued roar of the dangerous tide-rips. Tematau was for'ard, holding on to the fore-stay and peering ahead. Suddenly he gave a cry of alarm and shouted to ...
— The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton - 1902 • Louis Becke

... of Gian Maria had narrowed more and more whilst Francesco spoke, and into his shallow face had crept an evil, suspicious look. As the Count ceased, he gave vent to a subdued laugh, bitter with mockery. ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini

... Estevam Gomez. Forty sailors convicted of rebellion were pardoned because their services were considered indispensable. After this severe lesson Magellan might well hope that the mutinous spirit was really subdued. ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part I. The Exploration of the World • Jules Verne

... a moment, hand clasping hand, curiously regarding the mirrored faces that smiled back so strangely at us. Then, somewhat subdued and thoughtful, we walked out through my chamber into a sunny little breakfast-room where landlord and servant received us a trifle too solemnly, and ...
— The Reckoning • Robert W. Chambers

... time no sound had reached them from the interior of the room where the two women sat together. Their voices must have been very low, their sobs subdued. Angela had not cried out as Mrs. Luttrell had done when she received the fatal news. No movement, no sign of grief was to ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... day which saw Pete Wilson's discomfiture most of the habitues had assembled in the Oasis where, besides the card-players already mentioned, eight men lounged against the bar. There was some laughter, much subdued talking, and a little whispering. More whispering went on under that roof than in all the other places in town put together; for here rustling was planned, wayfaring strangers were "trimmed" in "frame-up" at cards, ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories • Various

... was chatting, in a subdued voice, with Headingly, the young Harvard graduate, bending forward confidentially between the ...
— The Tragedy of The Korosko • Arthur Conan Doyle

... malaria is increased. Many individuals gained thereby a complete immunity, others a partial immunity, that is to say, they were sometimes attacked by the fever, but it never, even in very malarious districts, assumed a pernicious form, and was easily subdued by very moderate doses of quinine. Last year, for example, in the district of Borino, where the malaria is very severe, M. Ricchi experimented upon seventy-eight employes of the southern railroads, dividing them into two equal divisions, one of which received no prophylactic treatment, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884 • Various

... had but finished dressing when I was startled by a knock on my door and by the entrance, to my summons, of the elder and more subdued Floud, he of the drooping mustaches and the mournful eyes of pale blue. One glance at his attire brought freshly to my mind the atrocious difficulties of my new situation. I may be credited or not, but combined ...
— Ruggles of Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... toilette of pale blue silk, with magnificent pearls around her neck and threaded in her Russian headdress. As is the way with all women of genius, Catherine's complete change of toilette indicated a parallel change in her demeanour. Her interesting but somewhat subdued manner of the previous evening seemed to have vanished. At the dinner table she dominated the conversation. She displayed an intimate acquaintance with every capital of Europe and with countless personages of importance. She exchanged personal ...
— The Devil's Paw • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... inimical to man, stealing and carrying away to his city in the skies the women of all nations, until subdued by other gods and men of magic powers. At present he is friendly to them, rather in the sense of an animal whose food temporarily satisfies him than in the beneficent character of most of the gods ...
— Zuni Fetiches • Frank Hamilton Cushing

... lost its rustic readiness, her eyes held a furtive something, as though she were always watching some memory. Her prettiness had gained in quality however, and her charm, though more conscious, was more certain. Curiously enough, the charm struck Ishmael for the first time now that he saw her subdued, not troubling to exert it save mechanically. He was sorry for that lassitude of hers, and after supper, walking under the elms down the lush valley, ...
— Secret Bread • F. Tennyson Jesse

... of everything was thoroughly subdued by this incident, and he felt none of his usual inclination to regard all that he saw in the Brazilian forests with a comical eye. The danger they had escaped was too real and terrible, and their almost unarmed condition too serious, to be lightly esteemed. For ...
— Martin Rattler • R.M. Ballantyne

... sidled over toward Belle. There was something new about the silver-haired girl, Belle decided instantly. The difference was slight—Belle couldn't put her finger on it at first. She seemed—quieter? Softer? More subdued? No, definitely. More feminine? No; that would be impossible. More ... more adult? Belle hated to admit it, even to herself, but that ...
— The Galaxy Primes • Edward Elmer Smith

... as if she heard nothing of it at all, with little Maria clinging closely to her. Robert Lloyd got out of his sleigh and went up-stairs just before they reached the factory, and she heard a very low, subdued mutter ...
— The Portion of Labor • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... the riches of a nation," hath been crudely understood by many writers and reasoners upon that subject. There are several ways by which people are brought into a country. Sometimes a nation is invaded and subdued; and the conquerors seize the lands, and make the natives their under-tenants or servants. Colonies have been always planted where the natives were driven out or destroyed, or the land uncultivated and waste. In ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift

... low sofa at the far end of the room lay a man of more than ordinary girth, with coat, vest, and shoes off, his face concealed by a newspaper. From beneath this sheet came, at regular intervals, a long-drawn sound like the subdued puff of a tired locomotive at rest on a side-track. Beside him was an empty tumbler, decorated with a broken straw and ...
— Colonel Carter of Cartersville • F. Hopkinson Smith

... This had to be subdued or counteracted, and as the Government were unaccustomed to manly, straightforward dealing, they fell back on their natural method of intrigue and the spreading of reports that were likely to encourage and create ...
— The Tragedy of St. Helena • Walter Runciman

... though it would very well admit of him as leader of his tribe. The incompleteness of the conquest is acknowledged unreservedly; the Canaanites lived on quietly in the cities of the plain, and not till the period of the monarchy, when Israel had grown strong, were they subdued and made tributary. This chapter, as well as the main stem of the Book of Judges, corresponds to the Jehovistic stratum of the tradition, to which also passages in Joshua, of an identical or similar import, may be added without hesitation. ...
— Prolegomena to the History of Israel • Julius Wellhausen

... glory subdued in him all the sordid parts of humanity, and he made the power and glory of England one with his own. He could change front through resentment or through policy; but in whatever path he moved, his objects were the same: not to curb the power of France ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman

... course to take. Our foe advances on us, And envies us even Lybia's sultry deserts. Fathers, pronounce your thoughts: are they still fix'd To hold it out, and fight it to the last? Or are your hearts subdued at length, and wrought, By time and ill success, to a submission? ...
— Cato - A Tragedy, in Five Acts • Joseph Addison

... shouted the Frenchman after them, in a tone of subdued anger. "I won't please you so much as to leave it alone. By my word!" he continued, "we may be thankful—it's more than I expected from Yanez—that they've given us any. Something's in the wind." So saying, ...
— The Rifle Rangers • Captain Mayne Reid

... against the Cavalier, or the Cavalier breaks loose from the restraining Puritan; but in Herbert the struggle is past and peace has come. That his life was not all calm, that the Puritan in him had struggled desperately before it subdued the pride and idleness of the Cavalier, is evident to one who reads ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long

... with anger as she came into the hall (the telegram had but that instant been put into his hands), and even now the footmen, still a little pale, were exchanging winks in the hall outside; while Clarkson, his valet, and the butler stood in high and subdued conference ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson

... wholly subdued the land of Dipsody, transported thereunto a colony of Utopians, to the number of 9,876,543,210 men, besides the women and little children, artificers of all trades, and professors of all sciences, to ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... will tell about itself. If there is one thing which advancing knowledge makes clearer than another, it is that death is swallowed up in life, and life in death; so that if the last enemy that shall be subdued is death, then indeed is our salvation nearer than what we thought, for in strictness there is neither life nor death, nor thought nor thing, except as figures of speech, and as the approximations which strike us for the time as most convenient. There ...
— Luck or Cunning? • Samuel Butler

... sincerity between well-bred people in a fine old house. Although all the shoji[30] are open, the trees of the beautiful garden cast a pensive shade. The ancient ceremonial of welcome and introduction would seem ludicrous in the full light of a Western drawing-room, but in the perfectly subdued light of these romantically beautiful apartments, charged with some strange and melancholy emotion, the visitor from the West feels himself entering upon the rare experience of ...
— The Foundations of Japan • J.W. Robertson Scott

... he referred to one of those unique springs, occasionally to be found in Florida—a transparent water of bluish tinge, bubbling up through the bottom of its deep, self-made reservoir; keeping the sand in a subdued state of agitation, and bringing pleasure to ...
— Wings of the Wind • Credo Harris

... this career of conquest continued. The barbarian Gauls proved fierce and valiant soldiers, but at the end of that time they had been completely subdued and made passive subjects of Rome. Caesar even crossed the sea into Britain, and look the first step towards the conquest of that island, of which ...
— Historic Tales, Volume 11 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... "You waited there by the window," he went on with subdued excitement, for the hope was high in his heart that Carter was innocent. "You waited ever so long, until a pistol ...
— Sandy • Alice Hegan Rice

... bowing respectfully. He was once more part of the smooth machinery of the Marston & Waller offices. He was pale, calm, cool, subdued master of his emotions as the employees of Julius Marston were trained ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day

... and buoyant, opening fond arms to the blue sky. The absence of the sap-greens of England conveyed at first an impression of barrenness, but that wore off, and the artistic side of his nature fed upon the soft harmonies of faded grass and subdued green foliage nursing misty purples in its shade. The ground was his bed and chair and table; never had he been so intimate with Mother Earth. Here she was uncontaminated, the soil was sweet, and it gave no hint of untold generations of dead fattening the grass upon which he ...
— In the Roaring Fifties • Edward Dyson

... person, or from becoming an engine of oppression in the hands of another, should fail; if they should give way to the maxims of commerce, to the refinements of a supposed philosophy, or to the misplaced ardours of a republican spirit; if they are betrayed by the cowardice of subjects, or subdued by the ambition of princes; what must become of the ...
— An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition • Adam Ferguson, L.L.D.

... were and of what made them so. Each nerve has a sort of memory of its past life, is trained or not trained, dulled or quickened, as the case may be; each feature is shaped and characterised, or left loose and meaningless, as may happen; each hand is marked with its trade and life, subdued to what it works in;—IF WE COULD BUT ...
— Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society • Walter Bagehot

... were merely those of wounded vanity, or whether he had liked her better than he himself acknowledged, certain it was that Major Frederick Harper was a good deal moved—so much so, that he succeeded in concealing it. He came back, very kind, subdued, and tender, sat down by her ...
— Agatha's Husband - A Novel • Dinah Maria Craik (AKA: Dinah Maria Mulock)

... she felt it deeply; and more than once it had so far subdued her pride, as to cause her bitterly to weep. This shedding of tears, however, was of service to Jack in one sense, for it had the effect of renewing old impressions, and in a certain way, of reviving the nature of her sex within her—a nature ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper

... hall, they passed through a succession of rooms vacant, subdued, rich, and on into that other room where she had sung. At the farther end was a hyacinth curtain that masked a door. But near the entrance through which she had come was an ivory chair. Cassy, seating herself on it, wondered what had become of the ...
— The Paliser case • Edgar Saltus

... self-denial, of subduing the animal nature, its passions, appetites, desires, is as true and as needful to-day as it ever was; and for us all it is essential to the loftiness and purity of our Christian life that our animal nature and our fleshly constitution should be well kept down under heel and subdued. As Paul himself said in another place, 'I bring under my body, and I keep it in subjection, lest by any means I should myself, having proclaimed to others the laws of the contest, be rejected from the prize.' Oh, you Christian men and women! if ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... Rome, this Contryes Father, This Sonne of lasting fame and e ndles praise, And in a mortall trunke, immortall vertue 1860 Slaughtered, profan'd, and bucherd like a beast, By trayterous handes, and damned Paracides: Recounte those deedes and see what he hath don, Subdued those nations which three hundred yeares. Remaynd vnconquered; still afflicting Rome, And recompensed the firy Capitoll, With many Citties vnto ashes burnt: And this reward, these thankes you render him: Here lyes he dead to whome you owe your liues: By you this slaughtered body bleedes againe, ...
— The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge • Anonymous

... among my first. It was always before my eyes, when I was three, four, five years old: I see the pyramidal top, rising over a mass of shrubbery; I see it always against a sunset-sky; always in the subdued twilight in which we seem to see things in distant years. These old friends will die, you think; who will take their place? You will be an old gentleman, a frail old gentleman, wondered at by younger men, and telling them long stones about the days when Lincoln was President, like those which ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... retort with a dish of strawberries and a copy of "Lalla Rookh"; if in the fall, with a basket of grapes and Thomson's "Seasons," after which there would be no further exchange of hostilities. The younger daughter, being a school-girl, will occasionally have to be subdued with green apples and salt. The mother could easily give trouble; or she might be one of those few women to know whom is to know the best that there is in all this ...
— A Kentucky Cardinal • James Lane Allen

... refreshed by the hours of slumber that had passed. Her father still looked weary, as though he had spent the interval in troubled thought rather than sleep, but he hailed them cheerily. All up and down the hill was a subdued and busy humming, for the day after rain is the best of all seasons for bees to ...
— The Windy Hill • Cornelia Meigs

... the British diplomacy and the British Navy were actually compelled to force an armistice upon the Neapolitan Government on behalf of its revolted subjects, and when their revolt was nearly quelled! After Messina had been completely subdued, its forces routed, its walls crumbled, its strongest place captured, our Admiral, having a fleet in those waters, was resolved it should not be there for nothing. Hitherto he and his captains had only expressed sympathy ...
— Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy 1738-1914 • Edgar Jones

... subdued expression on the child's face as he rose from his knees; and when Mr. Hall lifted him from the floor to lay him in bed, he drew his arms about his neck ...
— Cast Adrift • T. S. Arthur

... paraphrase are not these lines very impressive? In the original they are much more solemn. They are not querulous, yet full of lamentation. We see in them not a weak spirit quarrelling with fate, but a strong spirit subdued by a sense of the conditions on which life has been given; conditions against which it is vain to contend, to which it is hard to submit, but which may yet be borne by a will deriving strength from ...
— Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 • John Wilson

... doing he would have placed himself in the power of the malign spirits." Among the aborigines of Victoria the dead were very rarely spoken of, and then never by their names; they were referred to in a subdued voice as "the lost one" or "the poor fellow that is no more." To speak of them by name would, it was supposed, excite the malignity of Couit-gil, the spirit of the departed, which hovers on earth for a time before it departs for ever towards the setting sun. ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... he faintly realized what an existence other than that of a priest might be. Now for a brief moment he could forget the part of the subdued novice and become merely a man with nothing about him to distinguish him from other men, nothing to make heads turn at his approach and raise whispers ...
— Riders of the Silences • John Frederick

... sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-colored waters. Queequeg and I were mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat, for an additional lashing to our boat. So still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene, and such an incantation of revery lurked in the air, that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own invisible self. I was the attendant or page of Queequeg, while busy at ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... opened by the trembling hands of Mynheer Poots, who then made a hasty retreat upstairs. The truth of what Philip had said was then apparent. Many were the buckets of water which he was obliged to fetch before the fire was subdued; but during his exertions neither the daughter nor the father ...
— The Phantom Ship • Captain Frederick Marryat

... that evening she was seated on the corner of the sofa near the window. The moon was shining on the breathless park, and a moth whirled between the still flames of the candles which burned on the piano. He noticed that her mood was subdued and reflective. She liked him to sit by her, to take her hand and tell her he loved her. She liked to listen to him, but not to music; nor would she sing that evening, and his questions as to the cause remained unanswered. Her voice was calm and even, and ...
— Evelyn Innes • George Moore

... and hair, as also the ardent and romantic nature, which had thrown such a spell round Grace. Her intellect was of the highest order, and had been most carefully cultivated, so that her natural enthusiasm had been restrained and disciplined, but not subdued or weakened. She had only just left school, which was one of the highest class, where all the modern accomplishments necessary to a refined education had been thoroughly taught her; and as she had moved always in good society, her manners had acquired that easy grace and polish ...
— Grace Darling - Heroine of the Farne Islands • Eva Hope

... seems as though she is bringing all the happiness of one's life to meet one,' one of them used to say. She went up to Sanin, and holding out her hand to him, said in her caressing and, as it were, subdued voice in Russian, 'You will wait for me, won't you? ...
— The Torrents of Spring • Ivan Turgenev

... ended by a copious flood of grief that provoked a frightful fit of coughing. When this was subdued she was weaker than a year-old infant, and lay between stupor and dreaming for so long a time, ...
— At Last • Marion Harland

... chief said. "You started the battle. It must go to its conclusion. Brave men wish to die in battle. It is our fondest wish. You are the first enemy we have had in many years, since we subdued ...
— Warrior Race • Robert Sheckley

... neighboring province committed outrages upon its British neighbors, it became necessary in self-defence to punish it; and such punishment, invariably led to its subjugation. In this way one province after another was subdued, until finally in the absorption of the Kingdom of Oude (1856) the natural boundary of the Himalaya Mountains had been reached, and the conquest was complete. The little trading company of British merchants had become an Empire, vast and rich beyond ...
— The Evolution of an Empire • Mary Parmele

... establish a unity of sentiment—it must necessarily effect, in a greater or less degree, the same thing among those who learn and sing the lays which they produce. And, indeed, it would seem a truth that, by the congenial influences of song, the hearts of a nation are more united—more willing to be subdued into acquiescence and equality, than by ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... the gully cleared, the faraway blue ranges grew more distinct, and the creeper-covered verandah was once more a pleasant place to lounge in. From the untidy, half-reclaimed garden, came the sound of children's voices, subdued by the distance, and the gentle lowing of the milkers in the stockyard behind the house. But no one came on to the verandah to disturb Tom Hollis and Bessie Warner, the eldest daughter of the house—perhaps they knew better—and yet these two did not seem to have much to say to each ...
— The Moving Finger • Mary Gaunt

... Brahmanas flying along the pathless ground, we followed him, although we were smeared with frumenty, exclaiming behind him, 'Be gratified with us, O holy one! Endued with great energy, the Brahmana, seeing me, said, 'O mighty-armed Krishna, thou hast subdued wrath by the strength of thy nature? O thou of excellent vows, I have not found the slightest fault in thee! O Govinda, I have been highly gratified with thee. Do thou solicit the fruition of such wishes as thou pleasest! Behold duly, ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... little streak under his eyes gave to his usually good-humoured face an utterly altered, almost a malignant expression. Ferrani stepped across and spoke to him for a moment angrily. The man took up his instrument, waved his hand, and the music re-commenced in a subdued note. Pamela turned to the chief maitre d'hotel, who had now ...
— The Pawns Count • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... gentle murmur of voices, moving rhythmically as in prayer; and in a short bend of the road I came face to face with the children leaving school. I had been accustomed to seeing these wild, bare-legged mountaineers breaking loose from school in a state of subdued frenzy, leaping up and down the side ditches, screaming, yelling, panting, with their elf-locks blinding their eyes, and their bare feet flashing amid the green of grasses or the brown of the ditch-mould. ...
— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan

... A giggle of subdued merriment ran round the room. An instinctive respect kept it within bounds, or perhaps it was Bob Fletcher's fierce and warning look that cowed any incipient rowdyism. The brawny mutineer set her on his knee, and, in a voice ...
— Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas • Lloyd Osbourne

... the injudicious exactions of the minister of war," replied Leopold, carelessly; "and if, despite of all the obstacles that were placed in his way, he has subdued Hungary, you have no part in his glory, my lord; for in every case your judgment has ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach

... solitude, passed as it were in a besieged camp—Threlfall and its inmates against the world—this new and tardy contact with humanity, this momentary return to neighbourly, kindly ways brought with it a strange sweetness. And when night fell, and a subdued, scarcely perceptible murmur of life began to creep about the passages of the old house, in general so dead and silent, Mrs. Dixon might have been heard hoarsely crooning an old song to herself as she went to and fro in the kitchen. All the evening she and Dixon were restless, ...
— The Mating of Lydia • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... didn't. He made a dive into a deeper obscurity and I lost him until I heard his knock. I was glad that he should have knocked with such decent restraint, but all the effect of it was instantly shattered by the response. For at his first subdued rap, a dog with a penetratingly strident bark set up a perfectly detestable clamour within the house. It was just as if Jervaise's touch on the door had liberated the spring of some awful rattle. ...
— The Jervaise Comedy • J. D. Beresford

... between the muffled beat of hooves the Maccabee heard at his ears the quick lively throb of a busy pump. With it went the firm rush of a subdued stream. He was hearing his own heart-beat, his own life flowing through his veins. Since nature in him had hurried him out of the synagogue after its own desire, he seemed to have become primitive, conscious of the human creature in him. Now, though he rode through a bewitching ...
— The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem • Elizabeth Miller

... his will. I say "almost," because, as you will see in a little while, there were certain members of this extraordinary community who possessed a spirit of independence too strong to be so easily subdued. ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss

... if she places herself in the attitude of rebellion, Maryland may be overrun and subdued in a single week, including the extinction of slavery within her own borders; for war ...
— The Abolition Of Slavery The Right Of The Government Under The War Power • Various

... got hold of Dr. Boardman's "Bible in the Family," at the Bucks yesterday, and brought it home to read. I like it very much. There is a vein of humor running through it which, subdued as it is, must have awakened a good many smiles. He quotes some lines of Coleridge, which I wonder I did not have as ...
— The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss • George L. Prentiss

... one drew a strained breath. In the dusty light from the hall they looked unreal, they felt disembodied. Mrs. Gunch squeaked, and they jumped with unnatural jocularity, but at Frink's hiss they sank into subdued awe. Suddenly, incredibly, they heard a knocking. They stared at Frink's half-revealed hands and found them lying still. They wriggled, and pretended ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... Wolfer is looking to-night," he said, staring at the hostess at the head of the table. Her eyes were bright, a faint flush on her cheeks, and her soft hair, which her maid had arranged as advantageously as short hair can be dressed, shone in the subdued light of the shaded candles. "One is so accustomed to seeing her in—well," and he smiled, "strictly business garb, that full war paint strikes one with the ...
— Nell, of Shorne Mills - or, One Heart's Burden • Charles Garvice

... bathed and dressed by nurse, Sir Edward still kept her on his knee, and after nurse had left the room, and the child rested her little head on his shoulder in a very subdued frame of mind, he did, what he had never done yet—stooped over her and ...
— Probable Sons • Amy Le Feuvre

... in which her "situations" are pitched produces one artistic gain which countervails its own loss of immediate intensity: the least touch of color shows strongly against that subdued background. A very slight catastrophe among those orderly scenes of peaceful life has more effect than the noisier incidents and contrived convulsions of more melodramatic novels. Thus, in 'Mansfield Park' the result of private theatricals, including many rehearsals ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various

... the kiss of greeting in public places; but when near relatives or cherished friends do choose thus to greet each other, the kiss should be exchanged unobtrusively and with dignity; conversation on private matters should be conducted in subdued tones, and a well-bred gravity—quite consistent with ...
— Etiquette • Agnes H. Morton

... he had been in Paris. Go find me ever a King of France who did such things, save Charlemagne; yet trow I he did not bear himself with authority so superb and imperious. What remained, then, more for this great king, if not to make himself full master of this glorious city which had subdued all the world in days of yore, as it was in his power to do, and as he, perchance, would fain have done, in accordance with his ambition and with some of his council, who urged him mightily thereto, if it were only for to keep himself secure. But far from this: violation of holy religion ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume III. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... mighty chiefs of yore, Who triumphed on the self-same shore: Ammon, who first o'er ocean's empire wide Didst bid the bold bark stem the roaring tide; Sesac, who from the East to farthest West Didst rear thy pillars over realms subdued; And thou, whose bones do rest 20 In the huge pyramid's dim solitude, Beneath the uncouth stone, Thy name and deeds unknown; And Philip's glorious son, With conquest flushed, for fields and cities won; And thou, imperial Caesar, ...
— The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 • William Lisle Bowles

... government, however, had not been without their effects. The country had collected itself; the feuds of the families had been chastened, if they had not been subdued; while the increase of wealth and material prosperity had brought out into obvious prominence those advantages of peace which a hot-spirited people, antecedent to experience, had not anticipated, and had not been able to appreciate. They were ...
— The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) • James Anthony Froude

... house during the holydays, when she was a boarding—school girl in England. My hardihood and self—possession returned, under the double gratification of seeing her, and the certainty that my blushes (for my cheeks were glowing like hot iron) could not have been observed in the subdued green light that pervaded the room.—"Well, Tom, since you are no longer dazzled, and see us all now, you had better get up, hadn't you—you see mamma is waiting there ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott

... one whose brow had no dark veins to swell. Fine was the mitigated fury, like Apollo's presence when in act to strike The serpent—Ha, the serpent! certes, she 80 Was none. She burnt, she lov'd the tyranny, And, all subdued, consented to the hour When to the bridal he should lead his paramour. Whispering in midnight silence, said the youth, "Sure some sweet name thou hast, though, by my truth, I have not ask'd it, ever ...
— Keats: Poems Published in 1820 • John Keats

... statesmen of the Southern States, and had been acceptable to that section of the Union. It had therefore been hoped that, with regard to him, the general and inherent antipathy to a Northern President, which there existed, would have been weakened, if not subdued. His diplomatic talents had been successfully exercised in carrying into effect Mr. Madison's views during the whole of that statesman's administration. He had been the pillar on which Mr. Monroe had, during both terms of his Presidency, leaned for support, ...
— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy

... replied the other. He shook free his rope, and the steer, now subdued, and tractable, rose to his feet and went ...
— Cowboy Dave • Frank V. Webster

... Ceylon innumerable descendants of the races who repeatedly subdued larger or smaller portions of the island, or carried on traffic there, as Moormen (Arabs), Hindoos, Jews, Portuguese, Dutchmen, Englishmen, &c., but the main body of the people at all events varies very little, and still consists of the two allied races, Tamils and Singhalese, who ...
— The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II • A.E. Nordenskieold

... entered, the father welcomed him with a warm, paternal smile. And be it remembered that John Wingfield, Sr. could smile most pleasantly, and he knew the value of his smile. Jack answered the smile with one of his own, a little wan, a little subdued, yet enlivening under the glow of his father's evident happiness at seeing him. The father, who had transgressed the rules of longevity by taking a second cigar after dinner, now pushed the box across ...
— Over the Pass • Frederick Palmer

... that when the gospel comes in the sweet and precious influences thereof to the heart, then, I say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued, and the soul made clean through the faith of it, and consequently fit for the King of glory to inhabit. [John 15:3; Eph. 5:26; Acts 15:9; Rom. ...
— The Pilgrim's Progress - From this world to that which is to come. • John Bunyan

... To-day in the subdued sadness that filled her heart, while she pondered the depressing news from India, her face seemed etherealized, singularly sublimated; and as he watched the expression of child-like innocence, the delicate tracery of nose ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

... a strangeness in his bearing which made her uneasy, a certain subdued hilarity which ...
— The Green Rust • Edgar Wallace

... was to be deprecated in any event, it was suicidal amongst these infant settlements by reason of the vicinage and antagonism of the fierce and only half-subdued Cherokees, sullenly nourishing schemes of revenge for their recent defeat and many woes. But when he urged this upon the attention of the herders, the retort came quick and pointed: "We ain't talkin' 'bout no Injuns!—the Cherokees never meddled ...
— The Frontiersmen • Charles Egbert Craddock

... in a subdued and quiet way, and Miranda picked up the coffee-pot while her mother walked ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11 • Various

... Boffin's answer, as he surveyed his new friend again. There was something repressed in the strange man's manner, and he walked with his eyes on the ground—though conscious, for all that, of Mr Boffin's observation—and he spoke in a subdued voice. But his words came easily, and his voice was agreeable in ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... a high degree to remark that for him who had so fully subdued to the use of man the gigantic power of steam it was also reserved to unfold its compound natural and elemental principles, as if on this subject there were to be nothing which his researches did not touch, nothing which they touched that they ...
— James Watt • Andrew Carnegie

... his hiding-place in the high dhurra when assured of the elephants' retreat. I was obliged to admonish the whole party by a little physical treatment, and the gallant Bacheet returned with us to the village, crestfallen and completely subdued. On the following day not a vestige remained of the elephant, except the offal; the Arabs had not only cut off the flesh, but they had hacked the skull and the bones in pieces, and carried them off to boil ...
— In the Heart of Africa • Samuel White Baker

... with Distin, Macey, and Gilmore, and their encounters, in which Vane joined, bantering and being bantered unmercifully; but Distin was completely changed. The sharp bitterness seemed to have gone out of his nature, and he became quiet and subdued. Vane treated him just the same as of old, but there was no warm display of friendship made, only on Distin's part a steady show of deference and respect till the day came when he was to leave ...
— The Weathercock - Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias • George Manville Fenn

... treacheries vnder a smiling countenance, whom they deadly hate, for if it lay in their possibilitie, they would ouerthrow and destroy heauen it selfe. Now vnable to do this, they endeuour to worke vpon a more weake subiect and matter; and therefore hee that will not bee subdued of them, must auoid all occasions whereby he may take any aduantage, and couered with the Breast-plate of Righteousnesse, and defended with the Shield of Faith, quench all his fiery Darts. ...
— A Treatise of Witchcraft • Alexander Roberts

... he marked the top of the mountain, and aimed as straight as he could for its side, before plunging again into the bewildering maze of trees, whose wide-spreading foliage made all beneath a subdued shade. ...
— Fire Island - Being the Adventures of Uncertain Naturalists in an Unknown Track • G. Manville Fenn

... were leaning against the rail, talking in subdued tones, awed by the grandeur of the drama being enacted ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield

... that time stimulated scenes of mob violence in several Northern cities where the discussion was attempted. By prompt, undaunted resistance, however, this spirit was subdued, and the right of free inquiry established; so that discussion of the question, so far from being dangerous in Free States, is now begun to be allowed in the Slave States; and there are some subjects the mere discussion ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb

... of an enlarged, disinterested nature. It loves all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, without regard to colour or condition." "Georgiana, my dear, you are an abolitionist; your talk is fanaticism," said Mr. Peck in rather a sharp tone; but the subdued look of the girl, and the presence of Carlton, caused the father to soften his language. Mr. Peck having lost his wife by consumption, and Georgiana being his only child, he loved her too dearly to say more, even if he felt displeased. A silence followed this exhortation ...
— Clotel; or, The President's Daughter • William Wells Brown

... now subdued belligerents, instead of being out of the Union, are merely destroyed, and are now lying about, a dead corpse, or with animation so suspended as to be incapable of action, and wholly unable to heal themselves by any unaided movements of their ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes

... shivering terror of the secrets he knows are there. Wiser wickedness deliberately airs his skeleton now and then, and thereby the grisly presence grows less grisly, and the hollow rattle of the bones less threatening. The articulation remains the same, but the tone, so to speak, is more subdued. ...
— The Justice of the King • Hamilton Drummond

... He declared further that Latisan was of a sort to suit desperadoes and had put into the crew some kind of fire which made the men dangerous to vested interests on the river. He devoted himself to Latisan with subdued profanity, despite the presence of the young woman. He averred that Latisan himself had no love for Flagg—nobody up-country gave a tinker's hoot for Flagg, anyway. He insisted, desperate in spite ...
— Joan of Arc of the North Woods • Holman Day

... the Duke of Cumberland, a character far more pronounced and vigorous, had won the day at Culloden, and lost it at Fontenoy; but whether victor or vanquished, had shown the same vehement bull-headed courage, of late a little subdued by fast growing corpulency. The Duke of Newcastle, the head of the government, had gained power and kept it by his rank and connections, his wealth, his county influence, his control of boroughs, and the extraordinary assiduity and devotion with which he practised the arts of corruption. Henry ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman

... our quiet ways, subdued and sane; To hush all vulgar clamour of the street; With level calm to face alike the strain Of triumph ...
— A Treasury of War Poetry - British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917 • Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by George Herbert Clarke

... words she again passed her fingers over her harp, and after strains of melting sweetness, prolonged till our souls were wholly subdued to the sway of the gentler emotions, she sang in words of Sappho, the praise of love and peace, twin-sisters. And then as we urged, or named to her, Greek or Roman airs which we wished to hear, did she sing and play till every ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware

... brilliant, rosy light on the mountain-tops, but this came down in a subdued form to the travellers in the valley. The place scarcely deserved the name of a valley. It was more of a gorge. The mountains rose up like broken walls on each side, until they seemed to pierce ...
— Chasing the Sun • R.M. Ballantyne

... direct the measures of the Government and the movements of its vast armies. And what if all should fail? What if the resources of the Government should prove inadequate, and its enemies too powerful to be subdued by force? No wonder he was appalled and well-nigh overwhelmed by the dark prospect ...
— The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln • Francis Fisher Browne

... yet to learn, sweetheart," observed Charles, with an incredulous look, "that woman's love, if deeply fixed, can be subdued." ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth

... Her features and head, though decidedly African, were not of that coarse and heavy cast that marks the lineaments of her race. The grain of her shining skin was as fine and polished as ebony. A melancholy languor subdued and deepened the blackness of her large eyes, while her small and even teeth gleamed with the brilliant purity of snow. Her mouth was rosy and even delicate; and, indeed, had not her ankles, feet, and wool, manifested ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer

... with which he marched against Columbo, and was so vain of his good fortune that he caused himself to be proclaimed emperor of Ceylon, and transmitted an order to the king of Candy to send him one of his two wives. The answer on this occasion was, that it should be done when the Portuguese were subdued. Nicapeti was so enraged at this answer, that he threatened to use the king of Candy like the Portuguese; and on this threat coming to the knowledge of the 2000 auxiliaries from Candy, they immediately returned home. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... in one man's life, to another may be great A subdued tone generally provokes an equally subdued answer Air of a professional guide Before you serve me up so bitter a meal (the truth) Blind tenderness which knows no reason By nature she is not and by circumstances is compelled to be Deceit is deceit Desire to seek and find a power ...
— Quotations From Georg Ebers • David Widger

... next day subdued and plausible workmen of all sorts awoke the house with knocking at six-thirty precisely, and the two doorways were slowly bricked up. The curious thing was that, when the barrier was already a foot high on the ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett

... all. Anger, prompting an appeal to the cudgel, there might be, but sense of wounded honour, requiring a reparation by appeal to arms, or a washing away by blood, no such feeling could have been subdued or overcome by a Roman, for none such existed. The feelings of wounded honour on such occasions, it will be allowed, are mere reflections (through sympathetic agencies) of feelings and opinions already existing, ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... desired effect, and with the returning day Holmes's better nature asserted itself. Raffles was subdued, and he returned to Gaffany's to put the finishing touches to ...
— R. Holmes & Co. • John Kendrick Bangs

... on the left hand of the great Cross, against which Manuel leaned lightly like a child who is not conscious of observation, but who simply takes the position which seems to him most natural. And when the subdued murmuring of the crowd had died into comparative silence, Aubrey, advancing a little to the front of the Cross, spoke in clear ringing tones, which carried music to the ears and conviction ...
— The Master-Christian • Marie Corelli

... Miss Fiske begged Mr. Stoddard to see him, and after a short interview he returned, telling her that the dreaded Guwergis was sitting at the feet of Jesus. "My great sins," and "My great Saviour," was all that he could say. He was subdued and humble, and before noon left for his mountain home, saying, as he left, "I must tell my friends and neighbors of sin and of Jesus." Yet he trembled in view of his own weakness, and the temptations that might befall him. Nothing was heard from him for two weeks, ...
— Woman And Her Saviour In Persia • A Returned Missionary



Words linked to "Subdued" :   tame, dark, low-keyed, restrained, dull



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com