subsequent

Pluralsubsequents

1. 1
   later in timeadjective

   Coming or happening after something else in time, whether immediately or at any later point.

   The first edition sold poorly, but subsequent printings corrected the errors and found a wider audience.

   Any subsequent changes to the contract must be made in writing.

   Similarlater, following, succeeding, ensuing, future

   Oppositeprevious, prior, earlier, preceding

2. 2
   next in orderadjective

   Coming after something else in position or arrangement, as in a row or a sequence of places.

   The opening chapter sets out the problem, and the subsequent chapters examine it case by case.

   The lead float was decorated in gold, and each subsequent float in the line carried a different color.

   Similarfollowing, succeeding, later

   Oppositepreceding, previous, earlier

3. 3
   describing a streamadjective

   Of a stream or fault line, following a line in the ground that erodes more easily than the land around it.

   Rather than cutting straight across the ridge, the subsequent stream bends to follow a fault zone of shattered rock.

   Working headward along a belt of weak mudstone, the subsequent stream eventually captured the upper waters of a neighboring river.

   Note

   Geologists use the word for timing as much as for path: a consequent stream follows the land's original slope, and a subsequent one comes after it, cutting its own valley along a belt of weak rock, often as a tributary. It is the everyday "later" meaning put to work, and William Morris Davis applied it to English rivers in 1895, writing of "the subsequent Derwent."

4. 4
   the stream itselfnouncountable

   A stream or fault line that runs along a line of ground more easily eroded than its surroundings.

   Farther north, a long subsequent drains the clay vale and joins the main river below the gap.

   The geologist traced how the subsequents had captured the headwaters of older streams.

   Note

   River histories drop stream or fault line and let the geological adjective stand alone, with the plural subsequents. Sydney Savory Buckman, tracing the Middle Wye in 1899, describes a northward subsequent that may have begun as a tributary while the Wye belonged to the Thames system and carried on after the river was turned into the Severn.

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