How to use subdue in a sentence

18 example sentences · verb

Subdue means to overcome, quieten, or bring under control. Example: “Gary Cahill, a target for Arsenal and Tottenham before the transfer window closed, put England ahead early on and Rooney was on target twice before the interval as the early hostility of the Bulgarian supporters was swiftly subdued.”

Examples of subdue by meaning

verbTo overcome, quieten, or bring under control.

Gary Cahill, a target for Arsenal and Tottenham before the transfer window closed, put England ahead early on and Rooney was on target twice before the interval as the early hostility of the Bulgarian supporters was swiftly subdued.2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC

verbTo bring (a country) under control by force.

Trump has rattled the world, and America’s neighborhood in particular, with a list of objectives – buying Greenland, seizing the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state – that treat friendly nations as weak interlocutors and impediments to be subdued.2025 January 14, Howard LaFranchi, “In Biden-Trump handoff, a foreign policy shift for a changed world?”, in The Christian Science Monitor

More sentences with subdue

For three causes Duke William entered this land to subdue Harold.2003, John Foxe, John Cumming, Book of Martyrs and the Acts and Monuments of the Church. From the entry wreak
No matter how he tries to subdue the recollection, it bothers him and causes constant psychological conflict.2000, Walter McConville, Anxious in Talara, page 143. From the entry uncoöperative
Multiple blanchings soften the flesh of the chiles and subdue their heat a bit.1999, Marilyn Tausend, Cocina De La Familia. From the entry blanching
It cannot draw back before these wastes, but must subdue them if only to demonstrate its viability.1965, Richard S. Lewis, “A Continent for Science”, in The Antarctic Adventure, Viking Press, page 258. From the entry Antarctican
Joan plays a nurse who uses judo holds to subdue unruly patients in a mental hospital.1962 September 28, “Shall We Dance? Thud!”, in Life, volume 53, number 13, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 57. From the entry whopping
Tarzan would have liked to subdue the ugly beast without recourse to knife or arrows.1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as…. From the entry recourse
Attenders watched the Mad Max: Fury Road star, dressed in a blue gi, subdue his opponents and win all his matches.2022 September 20, Danya Hajjaji, “‘Really nice guy’: Tom Hardy surprises competitors with entry and victory in martial arts contest”, in…. From the entry gi
Traditional religions try to capture the awesomeness and subdue the terror with their sense of fate, as did Nietzsche.2004, Robert C. Solomon, In Defense of Sentimentality, page 151. From the entry awesomeness
And he has a whole flock of minor players who subdue themselves that his brilliance may be highly contrastful.1926 May 22, Morris Markey, “A Yankee Holiday”, in The New Yorker, volume 2, number 14, New York, N. Y.: F-R Pub. Corp., page 21. From the entry contrastful
He broke off and bit his lip, feeling that he had better subdue the rising anger in his voice.1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “(please specify the page)”, in Tales of the Jazz Age, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC. From the entry bite one's lip
On one occasion, my mother sent me back to Jack translationless but with the suggestion that he subdue his enthusiasm a tad.2016, Nadine Browne, Mihaela Nicolescu, Whip Hand: Stories. From the entry translationless
That is why those of exceptionally "daemonic temperament", those who cannot early and thoroughly subdue the daemon within them, are racked by disquietude.2012, Stefan Zweig, translated by Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, The Struggle with the Daemon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche, Pushkin Press…. From the entry daemon
And his message was carried out to the letter in the opening exchanges as England played with a tempo and threat Montenegro struggled to subdue.2011, Phil McNulty, Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England. From the entry carry out
Among them was the “Madonna of the Prairie”—an angelic, idealistic, sunbonneted Euro-American woman, who went west with her family and aided in the Turnerian process of subduing the wilderness.2010, Gordon Morris Bakken, The World of the American West. From the entry sunbonneted
Guyon subdues these Achillean affections through his own power; but they break out again as Cymochles lapses into lust and Pyrochles burns in the idle lake.1959 September, A.C. Hamilton, “Spenser's Treatment of Myth”, in ELH, volume 26, number 3. From the entry Achillean
Kenneth Preuss returned home from a hunting trip with a ten-day beard last Sunday, very cave-mannny, but it will take more than that to subdue Edith’s literary exaltation these days.1929 August 18, Alma Whitaker, “Sugar and Spice”, in Los Angeles Times, volume XLVIII, part III, page 23. From the entry cavemanny

Meaning of subdue

verb To overcome, quieten, or bring under control.
verb To bring (a country) under control by force.

Full definition of subdue

Questions about subdue in a sentence

How do you use subdue in a sentence?: Subdue is used as a verb. For example: “Gary Cahill, a target for Arsenal and Tottenham before the transfer window closed, put England ahead early on and Rooney was on target twice before the interval as the early hostility of the Bulgarian supporters was swiftly subdued.”
What is a short sentence with subdue?: “For three causes Duke William entered this land to subdue Harold.”
What does subdue mean?: Subdue means to overcome, quieten, or bring under control.

Adapted from Wiktionary: subdue (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use subdue in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/subdue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.