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View synonyms for subvert

subvert

[ suhb-vurt ]

verb (used with object)

  1. to overthrow (something established or existing).

    Synonyms: sabotage, overturn, undermine, disrupt, upset

  2. to cause the downfall, ruin, or destruction of.
  3. to undermine the principles of; corrupt.


subvert

/ səbˈvɜːt /

verb

  1. to bring about the complete downfall or ruin of (something existing or established by a system of law, etc)
  2. to undermine the moral principles of (a person, etc); corrupt


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Derived Forms

  • subˈverter, noun

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Other Words From

  • sub·verter noun
  • unsub·verted adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of subvert1

1325–75; Middle English subverten < Latin subvertere to overthrow, equivalent to sub- sub- + vertere to turn

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Word History and Origins

Origin of subvert1

C14: from Latin subvertere to overturn, from sub- from below + vertere to turn

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Example Sentences

When those habits are missing or subverted, it’s time to worry.

Whether that’s to make people laugh or be scared, it’s about subverting expectation for surprise.

From Time

The democratic process cannot be allowed to be subverted through unlawful protests.

From Time

The company’s systems were hacked, and its IT tools were subverted to deliver Trojan horses all over the map.

From Fortune

On Friday morning, he tied together his two current fixations — the imminent vaccine and his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election — in a two-tweet package.

Yet Republicans will try to subvert the success by playing to their Obama-hating base.

Liu was convicted under Section 105 of the criminal code, or “incitement to subvert state power.”

FRC, he added, works through the political system rather than encouraging its members to subvert it.

A stronger al Qaeda in Yemen could help subvert Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states.

Taken this way, revelers might be doing their best to subvert the manly paradigm.

Their evident desire, he thought, was to subvert the English Government, and ‘set up their own wickedness.’

The opposition charged the government with a desire to subvert the constitution of Jamaica, and to tyrannize over the colonists.

And a plan of Society which each member of Society is striving to subvert is doomed from its birth.

He was accused of high treason, in endeavoring to subvert the fundamental laws, and of other high crimes and misdemeanors.

But deductive logic is the creation of Aristotle; and it was the authority of Aristotle that Bacon sought to subvert.

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