- Subject
- Subject Sub*ject", n. [From L. subjectus, through an old form
of F. sujet. See {Subject}, a.]
1. That which is placed under the authority, dominion,
control, or influence of something else.
[1913 Webster]
2. Specifically: One who is under the authority of a ruler and is governed by his laws; one who owes allegiance to a sovereign or a sovereign state; as, a subject of Queen Victoria; a British subject; a subject of the United States. [1913 Webster]
Was never subject longed to be a king, As I do long and wish to be a subject. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
The subject must obey his prince, because God commands it, human laws require it. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
Note: In international law, the term subject is convertible with citizen. [1913 Webster]
3. That which is subjected, or submitted to, any physical operation or process; specifically (Anat.), a dead body used for the purpose of dissection. [1913 Webster]
4. That which is brought under thought or examination; that which is taken up for discussion, or concerning which anything is said or done. ``This subject for heroic song.'' --Milton. [1913 Webster]
Make choice of a subject, beautiful and noble, which . . . shall afford an ample field of matter wherein to expatiate. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
The unhappy subject of these quarrels. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
5. The person who is treated of; the hero of a piece; the chief character. [1913 Webster]
Writers of particular lives . . . are apt to be prejudiced in favor of their subject. --C. Middleton. [1913 Webster]
6. (Logic & Gram.) That of which anything is affirmed or predicated; the theme of a proposition or discourse; that which is spoken of; as, the nominative case is the subject of the verb. [1913 Webster]
The subject of a proposition is that concerning which anything is affirmed or denied. --I. Watts. [1913 Webster]
7. That in which any quality, attribute, or relation, whether spiritual or material, inheres, or to which any of these appertain; substance; substratum. [1913 Webster]
That which manifests its qualities -- in other words, that in which the appearing causes inhere, that to which they belong -- is called their subject or substance, or substratum. --Sir W. Hamilton. [1913 Webster]
8. Hence, that substance or being which is conscious of its own operations; the mind; the thinking agent or principal; the ego. Cf. {Object}, n., 2. [1913 Webster]
The philosophers of mind have, in a manner, usurped and appropriated this expression to themselves. Accordingly, in their hands, the phrases conscious or thinking subject, and subject, mean precisely the same thing. --Sir W. Hamilton. [1913 Webster]
9. (Mus.) The principal theme, or leading thought or phrase, on which a composition or a movement is based. [1913 Webster]
The earliest known form of subject is the ecclesiastical cantus firmus, or plain song. --Rockstro. [1913 Webster]
10. (Fine Arts) The incident, scene, figure, group, etc., which it is the aim of the artist to represent. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
