Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To induce (a person) to commit an unlawful or evil act.
  • transitive verb To procure (perjured testimony).
  • transitive verb To induce (a person) to commit perjury.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To furnish; equip; adorn; ornament.
  • To furnish or procure unlawfully; procure by indirect moans.
  • To bribe or unlawfully procure to some act of wickedness—specifically, in law, to giving false testimony; induce, as a witness, to perjury.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (Law) To procure or cause to take a false oath amounting to perjury, such oath being actually taken.
  • transitive verb To procure privately, or by collusion; to procure by indirect means; to incite secretly; to instigate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To induce to commit an unlawful or malicious act, or to commit perjury
  • verb transitive To procure privately, or by collusion; to incite secretly; to instigate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb incite to commit a crime or an evil deed
  • verb induce to commit perjury or give false testimony
  • verb procure (false testimony or perjury)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin subōrnāre : sub-, secretly; see sub– + ōrnāre, to equip; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowed from Latin sūbornāre.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Just heard John McCain use this word in place of subordinate! "...we have to suborn our priorities..."

    August 15, 2007