Middle English Dictionary Entry

subǧet adj.
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Entry Info

Forms subǧet adj. Also subgette, -gid, -jete, -jeth, -jecht, -jekt, soubgite & sugete, suged, suggette, sougit, sogethe, sojette, sochet; pl. subjectes, soget(t)es.
Etymology From subǧet n. & L subjectus & OF subjet, sougit, sogeth, AF suget(e, sogette. A few quots. may belong to ME subǧet n.

Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)

1.
(a) Obedient, submissive; compliant; also, deferential; also fig.; ~ to (unto); (b) put to the service of someone or something else; of service to another; also, subordinate; ~ to (til); (c) in bondage to another, enslaved; also fig.; also, slavish; ~ to; maken ~ nol (nekke) under yok, to surrender to servitude or bondage.
Show 36 Quotations
2.
(a) Obligated to give allegiance to a sovereign, ruler, or sovereign power; also fig.; loyal, dutiful; also, subject to the pope as sovereign of the spiritual realm; ~ to (til, unto); (b) obligated by rule, canon law, or injunction to obey an ecclesiastical superior; under the spiritual guidance of a priest; also, subject to the rule of a religious order; ~ to (unto); (c) bound to the service of another, subordinate; (d) bound to the observance of a legal or moral code, a rule of conduct, etc.; bound to the ruling of a court or divine justice; also, subject to grammatical rules; ~ to; (e) under the jurisdiction of a city, country, etc.; also, annexed; ~ to (unto).
Show 48 Quotations
3.
(a) Subjugated, subdued; maken ~, to subjugate (sb., a territory, etc.), conquer, subdue; maken (bringen) ~ to, bring (sb., a people, etc.) into submission to (sb., an empire, etc.); also fig.; (b) under the absolute domination of someone or something else, incapable of independent action; also, constrained by an outside force or agency; of iron: subject to a magnetic attraction; ~ to (unto).
Show 28 Quotations
4.
Bound by necessity to undergo something, usu. harmful, or to endure an undesirable state; liable, vulnerable; susceptible, prone; ~ to; ben ~ to trespas, to be guilty of an offense, incur guilt.
Show 12 Quotations
5.
(a) Phil. Receptive to the imposition of form; ~ material, the passive substratum underlying all form, undifferentiated matter, prime matter; matere ~, the material component of a composite substance, the substratum of a form; (b) phil. susceptible of presentation as an object of knowledge; (c) passive; matere ~, the substance within or upon which an agent works.
Show 6 Quotations
6.
(a) Lying beneath; ~ to the erthe, lying beneath the earth, inhumed; (b) ~ to, at the foot of (a mountain), below; (c) appended, subjoined; (d) affected.
Show 6 Quotations
7.
Inferior [1st quot. perh. from a misreading of L sepositis as suppositis].
Show 2 Quotations

Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • c1350 MPPsalter (Add 17376)61.5 : Ha þou my soule, be þou subiecte for-soþe to God, for of hym ys my suffraunce.
    • Note: Antedates sense
    Note: Belongs to sense 1.(a).--per MLL
  • a1425(c1395) WBible(2) (Roy 1.C.8)3 Esd.2.16 : Thei writen this subiect [WB(1): vnderset; L subjectam.] lettre to the kyng.
    • Note: Supplemental material
    Note: Postdates sense--belongs to sense 6.(c) ("appended"), which has only one quot.--per MLL
    Note: See MED undersetten v. sense 5.--Ppl. underset as adj.: following, appended. (WBible (1) quot. for this passage used).

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