Definition of: subject

(sub′jikt) adjective
1. Being under the power of another; owing or yielding obedience to sovereign authority.
2. Exposed to some agency or tendency: subject to headache; a climate subject to storms.
3. Being under discretionary authority: a treaty subject to ratification.
—noun
1. One who is under the governing power of another, as of a ruler or government, especially of a monarch.
2. One who or that which is employed or treated in a specified way, as a body for dissection, a person used in hypnotic experiments, one attacked by or liable to any disease.
3. Something upon which thought or the artistic constructive faculty is employed, as a theme of consideration or the general idea or plan of an artistic work.
4. Gram. The word, phrase, or clause of a sentence about which something is stated or asked in the predicate.
5. Music The melodic phrase on which a composition or a part of it is based.
6. A branch of learning.
7. The originating clause or motive.
8. The ego or self; that of which qualities or attributes are affirmed; substance; essential being; the thinking, feeling agent.
9. Logic In a proposition, that term about which something is affirmed or denied. See PROPOSITION. See synonyms under TOPIC.
—v.t. (səb·jekt′)
1. To bring under dominion or control; subjugate.
2. To cause to undergo some experience or action.
3. To offer for consideration or approval; submit.
4. To make liable; expose: His inheritance was subjected to heavy taxation.
5. Obs. To place beneath. See synonyms under CONQUER, SUBDUE. [<OF suget, sujet <L subjectus, pp. of subjicere <sub- under + jacere throw; refashioned after L] Synonyms (adj.): dependent, disposed, exposed, inferior, liable, obnoxious, prone, subordinate. Antonyms: clear, exempt, free, supreme, uncontrolled, unrestrained.