subdued, ppl. a.
(səbˈdjuːd)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
1. Reduced to subjection, subjugated, overcome. Also absol.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 348 One, whose subdu'd Eyes,..Drops teares as fast as the Arabian Trees Their Medicinable gumme. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 48 Strengthened both against forraine invasions and revolts of the subdued. 1660 Milton Dr. Griffith's Serm. Wks. 1851 V. 397 [It] will in all probability subject the Subduers to the Subdu'd. 1812 Crabbe Tales xviii. 68 She had a mild, subdued, expiring look. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. iv. v, Lyons contains in it subdued Jacobins; dominant Girondins. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 202 A subdued, bronzed, resolved-looking man. |
2. Reduced in intensity, strength, force, or vividness; moderated; toned down.
| 1822 [implied in subduedness]. 1835 Lytton Rienzi iv. i, Censers of gold..steamed with the odours of Araby, yet so subdued as not to deaden the healthier scent of flowers. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre viii, My language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed that sad theme. Ibid. xiv, The subdued chat of Adèle. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps iii. §17. 83 Many of the noblest forms are of subdued curvature. 1861 F. Nightingale Nursing 59 There are acute cases (particularly a few eye cases..), where a subdued light is necessary. 1877 Huxley Physiogr. 203 The effects of subterranean heat in the locality may still manifest themselves in a subdued form. 1912 Times 19 Dec. 20/3 (Stock Exchange), There was a more subdued tone. |
Hence subˈduedly adv., with subdued sound, light, colour, etc.; subˈduedness, the condition of being subdued.
| 1822 Coleridge Lett. (1895) 718 In his freest..passages there is a subduedness, a self-checking timidity in his colouring. 1852 Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. xxxix. (1863) 294 Meekness and subduedness before God. 1858 G. Gilfillan Life Sir T. Wyatt W.'s Poet. Wks. p. xv, Homely natural feeling of the poetical and the subduedly sensuous. 1891 Kipling Light that Failed xiii, Maisie was crying more subduedly. |