1. [SUB- 7 b.] Zool. and Bot. A subdivision of an order; a group next below an order in a classification of animals or plants.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. 391. If a subclass end in ata, a suborder might end in ita; a section in ana, a subsection in ena.
1840. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 411. The order contains two families, or rather sub-orders,… Brachyura (short tailed) and Macroura or Macrura (long tailed).
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 398. While all the above genera belong to the order Compositæ, they are at the same time placed in three different sub-orders. Thus the sub-order Cichoraceæ includes the Chicory, Dandelion, Sowthistle, and Lettuce [etc.].
1898. Guide Mammalia Brit. Mus., 11. Man, Apes, and Monkeys constitute the suborder Anthropoidea.
b. transf.
1864. W. T. Fox, Skin Dis., 42. Under the head of pustulæ, is a suborder, furunculi, to include anthrax, boils, and pustula maligna.
2. [SUB- 5 b.] Arch. A secondary or subordinate ‘order’ in a structure of arches.
1890. C. H. Moore, Gothic Archit., vi. 236. The hollow which is given to the soffit of the sub-order of the pier arcade in the nave of Malmesbury Abbey.
Hence Subordered a., (of an arch) placed as a suborder.
1898. Archæol. Jrnl., Ser. II. V. 348. The subordered arch perhaps did not appear much … before the eleventh century.
