a. [ L. subjacens, p. pr. of subjacere to lie under; sub under + jacere to lie. ] 1. Lying under or below. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Being in a lower situation, though not directly beneath; as, hills and subjacent valleys. [ 1913 Webster ]

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 ]

☞ 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 ]

a. [ OE. suget, OF. souzget, sougit (in which the first part is L. subtus below, fr. sub under), subgiet, subject, F. sujet, from L. subjectus lying under, subjected, p. p. of subjicere, subicere, to throw, lay, place, or bring under; sub under + jacere to throw. See Jet a shooting forth. ] 1. Placed or situated under; lying below, or in a lower situation. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Placed under the power of another; specifically (International Law), owing allegiance to a particular sovereign or state; as, Jamaica is subject to Great Britain. [ 1913 Webster ]

Esau was never subject to Jacob. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Exposed; liable; prone; disposed; as, a country subject to extreme heat; men subject to temptation. [ 1913 Webster ]

All human things are subject to decay. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Obedient; submissive. [ 1913 Webster ]

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities. Titus iii. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Liable; subordinate; inferior; obnoxious; exposed. See Liable. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Subjected p. pr. & vb. n. Subjecting. ] 1. To bring under control, power, or dominion; to make subject; to subordinate; to subdue. [ 1913 Webster ]

Firmness of mind that subjects every gratification of sense to the rule of right reason. C. Middleton. [ 1913 Webster ]

In one short view subjected to our eye,
Gods, emperors, heroes, sages, beauties, lie. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

He is the most subjected, the most &unr_;nslaved, who is so in his understanding. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To expose; to make obnoxious or liable; as, credulity subjects a person to impositions. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To submit; to make accountable. [ 1913 Webster ]

God is not bound to subject his ways of operation to the scrutiny of our thoughts. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To make subservient. [ 1913 Webster ]

Subjected to his service angel wings. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To cause to undergo; as, to subject a substance to a white heat; to subject a person to a rigid test. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Subjacent. “Led them direct . . . to the subjected plain.” [ Obs. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Reduced to subjection; brought under the dominion of another. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Exposed; liable; subject; obnoxious. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. subjectio: cf. OF. subjection, F. subjétion. See Subject, a. ] 1. The act of subjecting, or of bringing under the dominion of another; the act of subduing. [ 1913 Webster ]

The conquest of the kingdom, and subjection of the rebels. Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state of being subject, or under the power, control, and government of another; a state of obedience or submissiveness; as, the safety of life, liberty, and property depends on our subjection to the laws. “To be bound under subjection.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. 1 Peter iii. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

Because the subjection of the body to the will is by natural necessity, the subjection of the will unto God voluntary, we stand in need of direction after what sort our wills and desires may be rightly conformed to His. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Metaph.) One skilled in subjective philosophy; a subjectivist. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. subjectivus: cf. F. subjectif. ] 1. Of or pertaining to a subject. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Especially, pertaining to, or derived from, one's own consciousness, in distinction from external observation; ralating to the mind, or intellectual world, in distinction from the outward or material excessively occupied with, or brooding over, one's own internal states. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the philosophy of the mind, subjective denotes what is to be referred to the thinking subject, the ego; objective, what belongs to the object of thought, the non-ego. See Objective, a., 2. Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Lit. & Art) Modified by, or making prominent, the individuality of a writer or an artist; as, a subjective drama or painting; a subjective writer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- See Objective. [ 1913 Webster ]

Subjective sensation (Physiol.), one of the sensations occurring when stimuli due to internal causes excite the nervous apparatus of the sense organs, as when a person imagines he sees figures which have no objective reality. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Sub*jec"tive*ly, adv. -- Sub*jec"tive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Metaph.) Any philosophical doctrine which refers all knowledge to, and founds it upon, any subjective states; egoism. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Metaph.) One who holds to subjectivism; an egoist. [ 1913 Webster ]