[ad. late L. subjugātio, -ōnem, n. of action f. subjugāre to SUBJUGATE. Cf. F. subjugation.]
1. The action of subjugating or condition of being subjugated; the bringing of a country or nation ander the yoke of a conquering power.
1658. Phillips.
a. 1676. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. iv. 160. This was the condition of Greece the Learned Part of the World after their subjugation by the Turks.
a. 1806. Horsley, Serm., viii. (1812), I. 143. The subjugation of nations, by the prosecution of this war.
1825. Scott, Talism., vii. The English fighting for the subjugation of Scotland, and the Scottish … for the defence of their independence.
1883. H. Wace, Gospel & Witn., iv. 74. The craving of the Jews for their temporal deliverance from subjugation to a heathen power.
1910. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 11), VI. 965/1. ‘There is subjugation,’ says Rivier…, ‘when a war is terminated by the complete defeat of one of the belligerents, so that all his territory is taken … and he ceases … to exist as a state.’
2. transf. and fig. Intellectual or moral subjection; reduction to a state of subserviency or submission; occas. the action of subduing (the soil).
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos., VI. ii. 406. The almost universal subjugation of strength to weakness.
1849. Ruskin, Seven Lamps, vii. § 2. 184. Obedience is, indeed, founded on a kind of freedom, else it would become mere subjugation.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., II. App. 305. The … exertions of Dr. J. J. Hayes … kept the scurvy in complete subjugation.
1858. B. Taylor, Northern Trav., 307. The subjugation of virgin soil … is a serious work.
1871. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., 224. The essence of morality is the subjugation of nature in obedience to social needs.
