subdue

Verb

subdue (third-person singular simple present subdues, present participle subduing, simple past and past participle subdued)

1. (transitive) To overcome, quieten, or bring under control.
   • And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d:
     And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes,
     Share equally the gold that bought their liues,
     And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
   • 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

   Synonyms:

   restrain, stifle, underbring, behedge, guard, govern, smother, bind, chasten, choke back

2. (transitive) To bring (a country) under control by force.
   • In the run-up to his return to the White House next Monday, Mr. 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...2025 January 14, Howard LaFranchi, “In Biden-Trump handoff, a foreign policy shift for a changed world?”, in The Christian Science Monitor

   Synonyms:

   conquer, underbring