subject

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Being in a position or in circumstances that place one under the power or authority of another or others: subject to the law.
2. adj. Prone; disposed: a child who is subject to colds.
3. adj. Likely to incur or receive; exposed: a directive subject to misinterpretation.
4. adj. Contingent or dependent: a vacation subject to changing weather.
5. n. One who is under the rule of another or others, especially one who owes allegiance to a government or ruler.
6. n. One concerning which something is said or done: a subject of gossip.
7. n. Something that is treated or indicated in a work of art.
8. n. Music A theme of a composition, especially a fugue.
9. n. A course or area of study: Math is her best subject.
10. n. A basis for action; a cause.
11. n. One that experiences or is subjected to something: the subject of ridicule.
12. n. A person or animal that is the object of medical or scientific study: The experiment involved 12 subjects.
13. n. A corpse intended for anatomical study and dissection.
14. n. One who is under surveillance: The subject was observed leaving the scene of the murder.
15. n. Grammar The noun, noun phrase, or pronoun in a sentence or clause that denotes the doer of the action or what is described by the predicate.
16. n. Logic The term of a proposition about which something is affirmed or denied.
17. n. Philosophy The essential nature or substance of something as distinguished from its attributes.
18. n. Philosophy The mind or thinking part as distinguished from the object of thought.
19. v. To submit for consideration.
20. v. To submit to the authority of.
21. v. To expose to something: patients subjected to infection.
22. v. To cause to experience: subjected to extreme weather.
23. v. To subjugate; subdue.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Placed or situated under or beneath.
2. Being under the power or dominion of another.
3. Exposed; liable, from extraneous or inherent causes; prone: with to: as, a country subject to extreme heat or cold; a person subject to attacks of fever.
4. Hence Exposed or liable, as to what may confirm or modify: with to: as, subject to your approval; subject to correction.
5. Submissive; obedient.
6. Synonyms Subordinate, subservient, inferior.
7. Apt, Likely, etc. See apt.
8. n. One who is placed under the authority, dominion, or controlling influence of another; specifically, one who owes allegiance to a sovereign and is governed by his laws; one who lives under the protection of, and owes allegiance to, a government.
9. n. A person or thing regarded as the recipient of certain treatment; one who or that which is exposed or liable to something specified.
10. n. Specifically— A dead body used for dissection.
11. n. One who is peculiarly sensitive to psychological experimentation; a sensitive.
12. n. One who or that which is the cause or occasion of something.
13. n. That on which any mental operation is performed; that which is thought, spoken, or treated of: as, a subject of discussion or negotiation; a subject for a sermon or a song; the subject of a story.
14. n. In grammar, that of which anything is affirmed; the nominative of a verb, without or with modifiers; the member or part of a sentence signifying that of which predication is made. A subject may be simple or compound; it may be a noun, or anything used with the value of a noun, whether word or phrase or clause: thus, that he has gone is true. A logical subject is one having the character of a subject according to the true meaning of the sentence; a grammatical subject is one having that character formally only: thus, in it is good to be here, it is the grammatical and to be here is the logical subject.
15. n. In logic, that term of a proposition of which the other is affirmed or denied. Thus, in the proposition “Plato was a philosopher,” Plato is the logical subject, philosopher being its predicate, or that which is affirmed of the subject. Also, in the proposition “No man living on earth can be completely happy,” man living on earth is the subject, and completely happy is the predicate, or that which is denied of the subject.
16. n. In metaphysics: A real thing to which given characters relate and in which they are said to inhere.
17. n. In Kantian and modern philosophy, the self or ego to which in all thought all mental representations are attributed (according to Kant); also, a real (hypothetical) thing in which mental phenomena are supposed to inhere. The word is commonly used by those psychologists who teach that the immediate consciousness of self (the subject) is an aspect or inseparable accompaniment of an immediate perception of an external object. The doctrine is that perception involves a sense of action and reaction (self and not-self). To this is often joined another proposition, that there is no mode of consciousness in which the opposition of subject and object does not appear. [Expressions very close to this meaning are to be found in pre-Kantian writers (see Leibnitz, Remarques sur le livre de M. King, § 20), but the word is in such passages used relatively, as in def. 6.]
18. n. In music: In general, the theme or melodic phrase on which a work or movement is based, consisting of few or many tones variously combined and treated; a motive. When two or more principal subjects are used, they are often known as first, second, etc.
19. n. In contrapuntal works, the theme given out at the beginning, to which (in fugue and canon) the answer responds, and with which the counter-subject is combined which is taken as the basis for thematic development, for imitation, etc. In a fugue, the subject is also called antecedent, dux, proposta, etc.; in a canon, guida; and in freer contrapuntal music, cantus firmus or canto fermo.
20. n. In the fine arts, the plan or general view chosen by an artist; the design of a composition or picture; the scheme or idea of a work of art: as, a historical subject; a genre subject; a marine subject; a pastoral subject.
21. n. In decorative art, a pictorial representation of human figures or animals; a picture representing action and incident.
22. n. Synonyms Subject, Theme, Topic, Point, Thesis. The first three of these words are often popularly used as exactly synonymous. Daniel Webster puts within a few lines of each other the two following sentences: [If an American Thucydides should arise,] “may his theme not be a Peloponnesian war,” and [American history] “will furnish no topic for a Gibbon.” Yet, strictly in rhetoric, and more often in general use, subject is the broad word for anything written or spoken about, while theme is the word for the exact and generally narrower statement of the subject. A topic is a still narrower subject; there may be several interesting topics suggested under a single subject. A point is by its primary meaning the smallest possible subdivision under a subject. Thesis is a technical word for a subject which takes the form of exact proposition or assertion which is to be proved: as, Luther fastened his ninety-five theses to the church-door. The paper in which the proof of a thesis is attempted is also called a thesis. A student's composition is often called a theme. The meaning of the other words is not extended to the written or spoken discourse. See proposition.
23. To put, lay, or spread under; make subjacent.
24. To expose; make liable or obnoxious: with to: as, credulity subjects one to impositions.
25. To submit; make accountable, subservient, or the like; cause to undergo; expose, as in chemical or other operations: with to: as, to subject clay to a white heat.
26. To bring under power, dominion, or sway; subdue; subordinate.
27. To be or become subject.
28. n. In geometry, the figure cut by the picture-plane.
29. n. In experimental psychology: The observer or reactor; the person upon whom an experiment is made.
30. n. More correctly, the person, normal or abnormal in mental condition, who is subjected to a mental test or an examination of mental efficiency.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Likely to be affected by or experience something.
2. adj. Conditional upon.
3. n. grammar In a clause: the word or word group (usually a noun phrase) that is dealt with. In active clauses with verbs denoting an action, the subject and the actor are usually the same.
4. n. The main topic of a paper, work of art, discussion, etc.
5. n. A particular area of study.
6. n. A citizen in a monarchy.
7. n. A person ruled over by another, especially a monarch or state authority.
8. n. music The main theme or melody, especially in a fugue.
9. v. transitive To cause (someone or something) to undergo a particular experience, especially one that is unpleasant or unwanted.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. obsolete Placed or situated under; lying below, or in a lower situation.
2. adj. Placed under the power of another; specifically (International Law), owing allegiance to a particular sovereign or state.
3. adj. Exposed; liable; prone; disposed.
4. adj. Obedient; submissive.
5. n. That which is placed under the authority, dominion, control, or influence of something else.
6. n. 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
7. n. That which is subjected, or submitted to, any physical operation or process; specifically (Anat.), a dead body used for the purpose of dissection.
8. n. That which is brought under thought or examination; that which is taken up for discussion, or concerning which anything is said or done.
9. n. The person who is treated of; the hero of a piece; the chief character.
10. n. (Logic & Gram.) That of which anything is affirmed or predicated; the theme of a proposition or discourse; that which is spoken of.
11. n. That in which any quality, attribute, or relation, whether spiritual or material, inheres, or to which any of these appertain; substance; substratum.
12. n. 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.
13. n. (Mus.) The principal theme, or leading thought or phrase, on which a composition or a movement is based.
14. n. (Fine Arts) The incident, scene, figure, group, etc., which it is the aim of the artist to represent.
15. v. To bring under control, power, or dominion; to make subject; to subordinate; to subdue.
16. v. To expose; to make obnoxious or liable.
17. v. To submit; to make accountable.
18. v. To make subservient.
19. v. To cause to undergo.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a person who owes allegiance to that nation
2. adj. being under the power or sovereignty of another or others
3. n. (logic) the first term of a proposition
4. v. make accountable for
5. v. make subservient; force to submit or subdue
6. n. a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; someone who is an object of investigation
7. n. the subject matter of a conversation or discussion
8. n. some situation or event that is thought about
9. v. refer for judgment or consideration
10. adj. possibly accepting or permitting
11. n. a branch of knowledge
12. n. (grammar) one of the two main constituents of a sentence; the grammatical constituent about which something is predicated
13. v. cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable to
14. adj. likely to be affected by something
15. n. something (a person or object or scene) selected by an artist or photographer for graphic representation