Subvert

Definition: Subvert

Subvert

Verb

1. Cause the downfall of; of rulers; "The Czar was overthrown"; "subvert the ruling class".

2. Destroy property or hinder normal operations; "The Resistance sabotaged railroad operations during the war".

3. Destroy completely; "subvert the privileges of the ruling class".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "subvert" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1532. (references)

Note: Subvert \Sub*vert"\, transitive verb. [imperfect & past participle. Subverted; Subverting.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Subvert

Depression

Overthrow, overturn, overset; upset, subvert, prostate, level, fell; cast down, take down, throw down, fling down, dash down, pull down, cut down, knock down, hew down; raze, raze to the ground, rase to the ground; trample in the dust, pull about one's ears.

Destruction

Destroy; do away with, make away with; nullify; annual; sacrifice, demolish; tear up; overturn, overthrow, overwhelm; upset, subvert, put an end to; seal the doom of, do in, do for, dish, undo; break up, cut up; break down, cut down, pull down, mow down, blow down, beat down; suppress, quash, put down, do a job on; cut short, take off, blot out; dispel, dissipate, dissolve; consume.

Evidence

Verb: countervail, oppose; mitigate against; rebut; (refute); subvert; (destroy); cheek, weaken; contravene; contradict; (deny); tell the other side of the story, tell another story, turn the scale, alter the case; turn the tables; cut both ways; prove a negative.

Inversion

Invert, subvert, retrovert, introvert; reverse; up turn, over turn, up set, over set; turn topsy turvy; Adjective: culbuter; transpose, put the cart before the horse, turn the tables.

Crosswords: Subvert

I had to subvert my principles and kow-tow to an idiot. (Trust; writing credit: Hal Hartley)

I had a bad day, I had to subvert my principles and kowtow to an idiot. (Trust; writing credit: Hal Hartley)

It's a sad day in America when the Cranes can't subvert government policy. (Passions; writing credit: Jean Chapot; Nelly Kaplan)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Dollars and Votes: How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy (reference)

• Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947-1956 (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• Subvert (reference)

• To Corrupt & Subvert (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

To prepare such an assembly as this, and endeavour to set up the declared abettors of his own will, for the true representatives of the people, and the law-makers of the society, is certainly as great a breach of trust, and as perfect a declaration of a design to subvert the government, as is possible to be met with. (Second Treatise of Government)

This doctrine would subvert the very foundation of all written constitutions. (reference)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Civil Liberties

China

In October 2000, a regulation went into effect banning the dissemination of any information that might harm unification of the country, endanger national security, or subvert the government. (references)

Human Rights

Ghana

The Commission concluded that the police who provided testimony conspired to subvert the Commission's work through a conspiracy of silence. (references)

India

Human rights workers have alleged that the central Government and Jammu and Kashmir state government both attempted to subvert the judicial process by withholding evidence in the case. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Albanian

shkatërroj (bash up, blow away, break to pieces, bust up, cast down, consume, crock, dash, decimate, defeat, demolish, depauperate, depredate, destroy, do for, do in, eat, erode, explode, flatten, gut, kill, level, rase, ravage, raze, rout, ruin, shake down, shatter, sink, smash, smite, take away, tear to pieces, throw down, trample down, unbuild, vandalize, wreck, zap). (various references)

Arabic 

‏قلب نظام حكم, ‏وقع الإضطرابات, ‏دمر (annihilate, blast, break down, demolish, desolate, destroy, devastate, flatten, immolate, overthrow, prey, pull down, pulverize, ravage, ruin, smash, unbuild, wrack, wreck). (various references)

Bulgarian 

събарям (bowl over, break down, bring down, demolish, dismantle, fell, fling, fling down, grass, kick over, knock down, knock off, lay low, overthrow, prostrate, pull down, push down, push over, rase, raze, ride down, run down, tear down, throw down), руша устои, катурвам (keel over, reverse, tip, tumble, upset), покварявам (corrupt, demoralize, deprave, pervert, taint), погубвам (destroy, kill, ruin, undo), подравям (dig under, wash away). (various references)

Chinese 

推翻 (Overthrew, Overthrow, Overthrowing, Overthrown, Subverted, Subverting). (various references)

Czech

podvracet, nièit (vandalize), korumpovat (corrupt). (various references)

Dutch

ondergraven (undermine). (various references)

Esperanto

subfosi (undermine). (various references)

Farsi 

موقوف کردن (Avoid, Discontinue, Dock, Overthrow, Suppress), واژگون ساختن , خرابکاری کردن (Sabotage), درون واژگون سازی کردن , برانداختن (Abolish, Exterminate, Overthrow, Overturn). (various references)

French

saper, miner. (various references)

German

zersetzen (corrode, decompose, disintegrate, to disintegrate, undermine). (various references)

Greek 

ανατρέπω (buck, capsize, frustrate, invert, keel over, nullify, overbalance, overrule, overthrow, overturn, tip over, tip over 2, topple, tumble, upset, upturn). (various references)

Hebrew 

לעות (contort, corrupt, distort, falsify, pervert, strain, twist, warp), לערער (appeal, appeal against, dispute, undercut), לחתור תחת (sap), לחתור (break into, break through, dig under, undermine). (various references)

Hungarian

felforgat (convulse, disarrange, invert, make mess, to muck, to rummage, to subvert, to topsy-turvy, topsy turvy). (various references)

Italian

sovvertire. (various references)

Manx

cur trooid y cheilley (complicate), cleiy fo (supplant, undermine authority, usurp). (various references)

Pig Latin

ubvertsay

Portuguese

subverter (destroy, quash), minar a lealdade de, minar (gush, honeycomb, mine, pool, spurt, spurt out, undermine), destruir (blast, butcher, consume, defeat, demolish, depredate, destroy, devour, dilapidate, douse, eat, end, explode, extinguish, finish off, havoc, impair, kill, mine, obliterate, override, overwhelm, poison, puncture, quash, quench, rase, ravage, raze, reave, reive, ruin, sabotage, shatter, slay, tear down, undo, unmake, wipe out, wrack, wreck), derrubar (down, fell, floor, grass, hew, hew down, knock, knock down, lay, overset, overthrow, overturn, prostrate, pull down, put down, shoot down, throw, tumble, unbuild, upset), corromper (adulterate, attaint, bribe, canker, contaminate, defile, foul, mislead, nobble, palm, pervert, poison, spoil, taint, vitiate). (various references)

Romanian

rãsturna (capsize, coup, invert, lay low, overthrow, overturn, reverse, rummage, scatter, snooker, spill, throw down, tilt, topple, tumble, turn, upset), distruge (abolish, annihilate, blast, blight, confound, crash, crock, cut, cut to pieces, cut up, dash, decay, defeat, demolish, destroy, devastate, dilapidate, disrupt, eat into, eat through, eliminate, exterminate, extirpate, finish, kill, lay waste, make havoc of, Mar, obliterate, overturn, overwhelm, perish, play the deuce with, play the devil with, quash, ravage, raze, reduce, ruin, scathe, scatter, scotch, shatter, shipwreck, sink, spoil, squelch, strafe, tear, undo, unmake, wreck). (various references)

Russian 

ниспровергать. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

srušiti (crash, knock down, overthrow, topple, tumble), porušiti (demolish, destroy, level, pull down, rase, raze, tear down), podriti (undercut, undermine), oboriti (bowl over, bring down, chop, fell, kill, knock down, lay low, override, overthrow, overturn, roll over, send down, throw down, topple, trample down, upend, vail). (various references)

Spanish

subvertir. (various references)

Swedish

omstörta (overthrow). (various references)

Turkish

yıkmak (batter down, blast, blow down, break down, confound, dash, demolish, destroy, do for, drag down, explode, extinguish, housebreak, knock down, knock over, level, overthrow, pull dawn, puncture, ravage, ruin, shatter, shoot down, split, take down, unbuild), huzuru bozmak, devirmek (capsize, chop down, crumple, cut down, defeat, down, give smth. a tip, knock, knock back, knock down, knock over, overset, overthrow, overturn, quaff off, revolutionize, shift, strike down, take down, tilt, tip, topple, topple over, upset), düzeni bozmak. (various references)

Turkmen 

maяyrmak (blow up). (various references)

Ukrainian

скидати (bare, cast, cast down, cast off, deduct, deject, depose, detrude, dismount, dump, jettison, kick off, lay off, precipitate, remove, shuck off, throw down, throw off, toss), розбещувати (corrupt, debauch, demoralize, deprave, filth, pervert, poison, pollute, prostitute, vitiate), порушувати (break, bring up, contravene, dislocate, disobey, exceed, infringe, interrupt, pursue, sin, transgress). (various references)

Welsh

dymchwelyd (overthrow, upset). (various references)

perversa, perversae, perversarum, perverse, perversi, perverso, perversorum, perversus, pervertat, perverteret, perverterunt, pervertes, pervertet, pervertit, pervertitis, subversa, subversae, subversarum, subversas, subversis, subversores, subversum, subversus, subvertam, subvertat, subvertens, subvertent, subvertentem, subvertentes, subvertentur, subverterat, subvertere, subverteret, subverteretis, subverterit, subverterunt, subvertet, subverti, subvertisset, subvertit, subvertite, subvertitis, subvertunt. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations

Words beginning with "subvert": subverted, subverter, subverters, subverting, subverts. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Subvert" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dubversh, savert, Sibert, Siberut, sobert, subert, subvent, subvery, suvert, Suvretta. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: brutes, burets, buster, rebuts, tubers, turves, vertus.

-2 letters: brute, buret, burse, burst, butes, rebus, rebut, rubes, suber, trues, tuber, tubes, verbs, verst, verts, vertu.

-3 letters: best, bets, brut, burs, bust, bute, buts, erst, rebs, rest, rets, revs, rube, rubs, rues, ruse, rust, ruts, stub, suer, suet, sure, true, tube, tubs, urbs, user, verb.

+1 letter: subverts.

+2 letters: obtrusive, outbraves, subverted, subverter.

+3 letters: oversubtle, subvariety, subverters, subverting, vestibular.

+4 letters: obstructive, obtrusively, subcurative, subinterval, subservient, subtractive, unobservant, unobtrusive.

+5 letters: attributives, distributive, obstructives, subcuratives, subintervals, subvarieties.