What's the difference between subdue and surmount?

Subdue


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To bring under; to conquer by force or the exertion of superior power, and bring into permanent subjection; to reduce under dominion; to vanquish.
  • (v. t.) To overpower so as to disable from further resistance; to crush.
  • (v. t.) To destroy the force of; to overcome; as, medicines subdue a fever.
  • (v. t.) To render submissive; to bring under command; to reduce to mildness or obedience; to tame; as, to subdue a stubborn child; to subdue the temper or passions.
  • (v. t.) To overcome, as by persuasion or other mild means; as, to subdue opposition by argument or entreaties.
  • (v. t.) To reduce to tenderness; to melt; to soften; as, to subdue ferocity by tears.
  • (v. t.) To make mellow; to break, as land; also, to destroy, as weeds.
  • (v. t.) To reduce the intensity or degree of; to tone down; to soften; as, to subdue the brilliancy of colors.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) So I am, of course, intrigued about the city’s newest tourist attraction: a hangover bar, open at weekends, in which sufferers can come in and have a bit of a lie down in soothingly subdued lighting, while sipping vitamin-enriched smoothies.
  • (2) Hopes that the Queen's diamond jubilee and the £9bn spent on the Olympics would lift sales over the longer term have largely been dashed as growth slows and the outlook, though robust with a growing order book, remains subdued.
  • (3) The director general of the CML, Paul Smee, said: "January is always a subdued month in the mortgage market but the underlying trend and strong year-on-year growth across all borrower groups indicates a strong start to 2014 continuing the sort of lending levels seen throughout 2013.
  • (4) England had started with some well-executed set piece moves, a triangular formation in midfield initially foxing Australia, but it was the Wallabies’ ability to react in open play that marked them out: Foley’s first try, after Israel Folau, otherwise subdued on the night, ran through Robshaw, came after he noticed Ben Youngs had drifted too wide and cut inside the scrum-half and Joe Launchbury before wrongfooting Brown.
  • (5) An investigation by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem concluded that while she did have a knife under her niqab veil she posed no threat to soldiers at the time she was shot and could have been subdued without being fatally wounded.
  • (6) In these cases, the woman’s wardrobe must feature subdued tones.
  • (7) Releasing its quarterly inflation report, the Bank's monetary policy committee admitted that the UK recession was deeper than previously thought and that inflation would stay very subdued for a long time – a signal that interest rates will not rise in the short term.
  • (8) He does not have the ingenuity of Diego Maradona or the lawless wit of Luis Suárez, so does not cast spells over opponents, but he has shown that he can certainly help subdue them and uplift his team.
  • (9) The company blamed the decline in performance on a challenging trading and competitive environment, ongoing subdued consumer sentiment and economic uncertainty, the effect of strong market capacity growth and an unrecovered $27m cost of the carbon tax.
  • (10) And we are hopeful that a recovery in productivity will keep firms' cost pressures subdued," its economists said in a research note.
  • (11) "However, one area of the market which is subdued is remortgaging – all the more surprising when you consider the excellent rates available and the threat of an interest rate rise.
  • (12) Examples included officers punching and using pepper spray on people who have already been subdued, including after they have been handcuffed and at times “as punishment for the person’s earlier verbal or physical resistance”.
  • (13) In the Alevi association, in this subdued but defiant campaign, Demirtaş looked past the cameras, his gaze static and distant, and seemed not to be there.
  • (14) Believing the suspect’s magazine was empty, he chased the gunman in hopes of subduing him.
  • (15) No, Mourinho always wants to win but the priority was certainly to hold the fort – and there is no better team in England when it comes to subduing high-calibre opponents.
  • (16) Forming a coalition will be challenging, while operational considerations must not be subordinate to political ones, Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies told the Guardian: "A coalition in which sectarian Iraqi Shia militias play a key role because these are Baghdad's only or most reliable troops, or in which Kurdish fighters are asked to operate far from their territories, could antagonise the very constituency whose support against Isis is fundamental: the various local Sunni communities who have accommodated or been subdued by Isis."
  • (17) The crowd was initially subdued, having just seen Murray crash out and there were plenty of empty seats when the match began.
  • (18) It had begun as a subdued explosion, really, in the early 1960s, when a new generation of bohemians began to adapt and mutate the culture of the 'Beats' - Jack Kerouac et al - which had installed itself on North Beach during the late 1950s.
  • (19) A subdued Rosberg was in his shoulder-shrugging mood.
  • (20) The results indicate that the extent of DNA degradation to acid-soluble nucleotides is highest in chromatin at the early stages of gonad growth, being drastically subdued in the mature sperm cell.

Surmount


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To rise above; to be higher than; to overtop.
  • (v. i.) To conquer; to overcome; as, to surmount difficulties or obstacles.
  • (v. i.) To surpass; to exceed.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This report describes how the difficulties were surmounted, and how the National Technical Centre then proceeded to undertake activities to extend awareness of the ICIDH.
  • (2) In calf tracheae, ketanserin caused surmountable antagonism of the effects of 5-HT with a pKB of 9.5.
  • (3) The results indicate that metoclopramide is a potent, surmountable and selective antagonist of tryptamine receptors on rabbit cardiac sympathetic nerves.
  • (4) The inhibitory effect on degranulation could not be surmounted even by concentrations of PAF 10-fold higher than that of 1-acyl-2-acetyl-GPC.
  • (5) One line of tumour proved to be sensitive to inhibition by a histamine H2 receptor antagonist and a dopamine D2 antagonist but resistant to serotonin antagonists; the inhibition by histamine antagonists was surmountable by co-administration of histamine.
  • (6) Our experience indicated that: It is possible to increase and enrich dream activity in quantity and in substance in the course of the treatment; This approach can affect all of the components of the personality which have been in regression after injury; Dream analysis does not require complex cognitive abilities and surmounts the special difficulty these patients have in using language and abstract concepts; It is possible to bring to the surface inner and subconscious contents residing in the patient that were ignored before; and The residual content of the premorbid personality is also expressed, thus facilitating the patient's inner contact between his former identity and his new one.
  • (7) Barriers to the effective dissemination of HIV prevention education are identified and strategies that may be effective in surmounting these barriers and implementing culturally-appropriate HIV behavioral modification programs are described.
  • (8) We hope that through our efforts we can surmount these difficulties, improve the quality of medical care in our country, and create a more rational economic and scientific basis for future medical development and advances.
  • (9) Hence, these tetanic contractions are not due to a surmounting of the atropine-block by the increased release of acetylcholine following the 50 pulses.4.
  • (10) Be resolute, fear no sacrifice, and surmount every difficulty to win victory!” read one famous counsel.
  • (11) These data show that behavior-relevant information transmitted by GABAergic drugs surmounted that transmitted by cholinergic drugs which, in turn, surmounted behavior-relevant information transmitted by dopaminergic drugs.
  • (12) In Model II, this difficulty is surmounted, but the formula is no longer exact.
  • (13) Some fibers produced very small spikes surmounted on large EPPs.
  • (14) We reinvestigated if it was possible to reveal this phenomenon by carefully choosing a concentration of the alpha adrenoceptor blocker prazosin that would give a significant displacement while it still was possible to completely surmount the blockade by reasonable concentrations of norepinephrine.
  • (15) In the absence of U46619, 5-HT responses were mediated predominantly by 5-HT2-receptors as judged by potent, surmountable antagonism by the selective 5-HT2 receptor antagonists, spiperone and ketanserin.
  • (16) After summarizing the health situation in Honduras and describing the National Health Plan launched in 1973, the authors explain the changes that have come about in nursing, the difficulties that had to be surmounted to reach a new professional position, and the administrative decisions that had to be taken to devise a health policy.
  • (17) In this paper, SDZ 205-557 (2-methoxy-4-amino-5-chloro-benzoic acid 2-(diethylamino) ethyl ester) is characterized as the first potent, selective and surmountable antagonist at 5-HT4 receptors in the isolated guinea pig ileum.
  • (18) The LV mechanical disadvantage of shock hearts was not correlated with changes in beating frequency, active state duration, or tissue water content; neither was it surmounted by pyruvate nor by maximally effective increases in coronary flow, diastolic stretch, or extracellular Ca2+ concentration.
  • (19) Trazodone and spiperone were apparently simple competitive antagonists since they produced antagonism that was surmountable over the concentration range studied and, in each tissue, their apparent affinity appeared to be independent of the antagonist concentration.
  • (20) There is an energy barrier at the channel entrance; if the ion could surmount this barrier, it would be quite stable within the channel.