ˈsuborder
1. [sub- 7 b.] Zool. and Bot. A subdivision of an order; a group next below an order in a classification of animals or plants.
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 391 If a subclass end in ata, a suborder might end in ita; a section in ana, a subsection in ena. 1840 Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 411 The order contains two families, or rather sub-orders,..Brachyura (short tailed) and Macroura or Macrura (long tailed). 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 398 While all the above genera belong to the order Compositæ, they are at the same time placed in three different sub-orders. Thus the sub-order Cichoraceæ includes the Chicory, Dandelion, Sowthistle, and Lettuce [etc.]. 1898 Guide Mammalia Brit. Mus. 11 Man, Apes, and Monkeys constitute the suborder Anthropoidea. |
b. transf.
| 1864 W. T. Fox Skin Dis. 42 Under the head of pustulæ, is a suborder, furunculi, to include anthrax, boils, and pustula maligna. |
2. [sub- 5 b.] Arch. A secondary or subordinate ‘order’ in a structure of arches.
| 1890 C. H. Moore Gothic Archit. vi. 236 The hollow which is given to the soffit of the sub-order of the pier arcade in the nave of Malmesbury Abbey. |
Hence subˈordered a., (of an arch) placed as a suborder.
| 1898 Archæol. Jrnl. Ser. ii. V. 348 The subordered arch perhaps did not appear much..before the eleventh century. |