subordinate

Pluralsubordinates

Formssubordinates, subordinating, subordinated

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A person who holds a lower rank or position than someone else and answers to them.

   The general blamed his subordinates for the failed attack.

   After the reorganization she found herself managing her former boss as a subordinate.

   Similarunderling, junior, inferior

   Oppositesuperior, boss, supervisor, manager

2. 2
   adjective

   Belonging to a lower class, rank, or position than another.

   Officers of subordinate rank waited in the hallway while the generals met.

   The guide lists each genus first, with its subordinate species grouped beneath it.

   Similarlesser

   Oppositesuperior

   Note

   The ranking sense the others branch from: Medieval Latin subōrdinātus, past participle of subōrdināre, built from sub- "under" and ōrdināre "to order", so whatever is subordinate is set lower in an order. John Woodward in 1695 writes of "subordinate species" ranked beneath their kinds. Its opposites are superior and superordinate; when obedience rather than position is the point, the 'under authority' meaning takes over.

3. 3
   adjective

   Yielding or inferior to another, or under the control of an authority.

   Under the new charter, the regional councils are subordinate to the national assembly.

   She insisted that personal ambition must stay subordinate to the needs of the team.

   Similarsubject, secondary, subservient, inferior

   Oppositeinsubordinate

   Note

   Here the word takes to and names what governs: regional councils subordinate to a national assembly, ambition subordinate to a team. Robert South, in 1662, draws the line that keeps it from meaning servitude, writing that something "was subordinate, not enslaved, to the understanding." Its opposite is insubordinate, the word for refusing that lower place.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To place someone below others in importance or worth through one's treatment of them.

   Novelists who subordinate their female characters often leave them with no inner life of their own.

   Her colleagues kept subordinating her in meetings, crediting her ideas to louder voices.

   Similarbelittle, denigrate

   Oppositeelevate

5. 5
   adjective

   Of a clause, dependent on the main clause, which it either modifies or completes as a complement.

   The editor flagged three fragments, each a subordinate clause cut off from its main clause.

   In a long sentence, putting the subordinate clause first can build suspense before the main point.

   Similardependent

   Oppositemain, independent

   Note

   A clause of this kind cannot stand as a sentence on its own. In The barbecue finished before John arrived, the words before John arrived make sense only attached to The barbecue finished, which they place in time. Grammarians also call it a dependent clause, and its partner is the main or independent clause. Unlike the rank sense, it does not grade.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To place a clause inside a main clause as a dependent part of it.

   Strong writers subordinate the weaker clause so the main clause carries the point.

   German subordinates a clause by moving its verb to the very end.

   Oppositecoordinate

   Note

   The grammarian's way of making something secondary: a writer subordinates a clause by tying it to a main one, usually with a word such as since, because or when, so that it becomes the dependent clause. In Since it rained, we stayed in, since subordinates it rained to we stayed in. The opposite move is coordination, which joins equal clauses with and, but or or.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To give a debt or claim a lower place in the order of repayment if the debtor goes bankrupt.

   As a condition of the rescue loan, existing lenders had to subordinate their claims to the new money.

   The bankruptcy court subordinated the insider's claim to those of ordinary creditors.

   Note

   Bankruptcy has a pecking order, and this verb moves a claim down it. A lender that subordinates its claim agrees to be paid only after the claims it yields to, and the verb takes to before the favored one: existing lenders subordinate their claims to the new money. The past participle gives finance its name for such borrowing, subordinated debt.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A hyponym: a word whose meaning falls under that of a broader, more general word.

   Every subordinate inherits the features of its superordinate, so a poodle is still a dog.

   The thesaurus lists each broad term with its subordinates indented beneath it.

   Similarhyponym

   Oppositehypernym, superordinate

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