as in to degrade
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
by insisting that she pay me for helping her, she subverted my noble desire to do a good deed without reward
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Recent Examples of subvert
The anime auteur responsible for Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo has been rewriting the rules of anime music since the ’90s, subverting tropes, reimagining genres, and weaving together disparate signifiers from the past and future to tell deeply affecting stories that speak to our present.
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Matthew Ismael Ruiz, Vulture, 1 Apr. 2025
Policies that ignore any of these realities will subvert U.S. economic security, not protect it.
—Aroop Mukharji, Foreign Affairs, 14 Mar. 2025
Project 2025 is explicitly derived from the processes used by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to subvert his country’s democracy and by Russian leader Vladimir Putin to subvert the inchoate democratic movement after the fall of the Soviet Union.
—Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 4 Apr. 2025
With a limited color palette and very spare design, the show subverts the commonplace elements of an office and invents a haunting visual language all its own that creeps you out while drawing you in.
—Charlotte Collins, Architectural Digest, 20 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for subvert
Matthew Ismael Ruiz, Vulture, 1 Apr. 2025
Policies that ignore any of these realities will subvert U.S. economic security, not protect it.
—Aroop Mukharji, Foreign Affairs, 14 Mar. 2025
Project 2025 is explicitly derived from the processes used by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to subvert his country’s democracy and by Russian leader Vladimir Putin to subvert the inchoate democratic movement after the fall of the Soviet Union.
—Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 4 Apr. 2025
With a limited color palette and very spare design, the show subverts the commonplace elements of an office and invents a haunting visual language all its own that creeps you out while drawing you in.
—Charlotte Collins, Architectural Digest, 20 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for subvert
Recent Examples of Synonyms for subvert
Verb
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Government lawyers argue that Meta's services have degraded in quality in part because of its dominant position in the marketplace.—
Bobby Allyn,
NPR,
13 Apr. 2025
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According to the National Institutes of Health, ALS progressively degrades, then kills nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.—
Natalie Neysa Alund,
USA Today,
11 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Agreeing to a pick swap with the Lynx weakened the value of the pick that the Sky traded away.—
Julia Poe,
Chicago Tribune,
14 Apr. 2025
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One by one, the sectors defect, and, eventually, the leader may weaken and their government may fall.—
Julia Angwin,
New Yorker,
12 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Stuart Miller, Boynton Beach Seven memorable words Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
14 Apr. 2025
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The show followed an ensemble of one-percenters at the titular resort in Hawaii, observing how their privilege blinds them to reality and corrupts everyone around them, leading to conflicts, cruelty, and, eventually, violence.—
Sophie Gilbert,
The Atlantic,
8 Apr. 2025
Verb
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More than half a dozen tornadoes have been confirmed, including one in Marshall County, Oklahoma, that left two homes completely destroyed and damaged about 20 others.—
Christopher Cann,
USA Today,
22 Apr. 2025
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Fans of the franchise will remember that the Battle of Exegol was the climactic showdown between the Resistance and the First Order, which ended with the Sith being destroyed once and for all.—
Charlotte Phillipp,
People.com,
20 Apr. 2025
Verb
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There was a period when Broadway creators thought the only way to get a performance was to humiliate a person.—
Mark Seliger,
Vulture,
7 Apr. 2025
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An investigation of at least eight fraternities found that members humiliated students through means like beating them with paddles or forcing potential recruits to eat live fish and drink urine, according to court filings.—
Dan Belson,
Baltimore Sun,
3 Apr. 2025
Verb
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His illuminating backstage account of cable news describes thoughtful journalists debasing themselves in their scramble to retain straying viewers.—
Daniel Immerwahr,
The New Yorker,
20 Jan. 2025
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This is what distinguishes bitcoin from every other modern financial asset – like gold, it cannot be debased by fiat or easily censored.—
Dave Birnbaum,
Forbes,
13 Jan. 2025
Verb
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Morgan was previously married to Keith Whitley from 1986 to his alcohol poisoning death in 1989 at age 34.—
Rachel DeSantis,
People.com,
17 Apr. 2025
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Scores of sea lions and dolphins have been fatally poisoned in recent months by domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by harmful algal blooms.—
Corinne Purtill,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Apr. 2025
Verb
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The plain and active meaning of the word cannot be diluted by its constriction, as the government would have it, to a narrow term of art.—
TIME Staff,
Time,
18 Apr. 2025
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This approach dilutes your unique value proposition and distracts from your primary purpose.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
16 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Subvert.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/subvert. Accessed 27 Apr. 2025.
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