What's the difference between subdue and vanquish?

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.

Vanquish


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To conquer, overcome, or subdue in battle, as an enemy.
  • (v. t.) Hence, to defeat in any contest; to get the better of; to put down; to refute.
  • (n.) A disease in sheep, in which they pine away.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The Scot has spoken many times of his ill fortune in reaching his peak at a time when his vanquished opponent Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have dominated.
  • (2) You only leave the ring, even when bloody, at the end; whether you are victorious or vanquished,” he said.
  • (3) His rapid build-up in Syria is not, primarily, about vanquishing Isis, although Russia certainly has good reason to fear Islamist extremism.
  • (4) They're camped outside Poundbury, Charles's "traditional" village (built in 1993), and the only way they will be vanquished is if Charles takes his blunderbuss and heads into the forest to execute some of them.
  • (5) On a night when Jerome Sinclair came off the bench to become Liverpool's youngest ever player at the age of 16 years and six days – he is so new to the scene that the club got his christian name wrong on the team-sheet and put him down as Jordan – Nuri Sahin endeared himself to the travelling supporters with two goals to help the holders vanquish West Brom and secure a place in the last 16, where Rodgers will come up against Swansea City, his former club.
  • (6) Using armoured vehicles supplied by the US to the vanquished Iraqi army, Isis has taken 12 villages in the Aleppo countryside in the past fortnight and is threatening to turn its guns on the opposition at the same time as it tries to engage the Syrian regime.
  • (7) Recall that "three dozen" -- that's "three dozen" -- current and former Obama aides ran to the New York Times in May to heap praise on Obama's supposedly judicious though resolute use of drones to vanquish America's enemies.
  • (8) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hillary Clinton: I’ve had more votes than ‘disturbing’ Donald Trump For Clinton, the five states voting on Tuesday offer a chance to vanquish the Vermont senator, and his unexpectedly strong leftwing challenge, with a more optimistic diagnosis.
  • (9) The plotters are biding their time, not vanquished.
  • (10) More pertinent will be the ramifications of this result for victors and vanquished in the weeks ahead.
  • (11) One of the last areas of mental competition in which humanity had an advantage over machines will have been vanquished.
  • (12) Although Adili Wuxor has never vanquished any ghosts, his rise to national stardom has, for many Uighurs, comparable significance.
  • (13) Hypertension and ischemic heart disease vanquished many of the survivors of the seige of Leningrad.
  • (14) How should we go about making sense of an obscurantist crime the better to vanquish it?
  • (15) There was also nostalgia for simpler times in the form of the immense popularity of western films and radio shows, like The Lone Ranger , in which heroes were easily identifiable, problems were solved with a quick fight and villains easily identified and eventually vanquished.
  • (16) Twenty-seven Colonials came to the plate and the Virginia pitcher vanquished them all, pitching a perfect game.
  • (17) Why should the leader, having vanquished his enemies, reward their failure with any kind of institutional veto over appointments?
  • (18) The novel reads like a manifesto for his obsessions: London, both everyday and arcane; a radical political sensibility; and a determination to resist the standard tropes of fantasy whereby quests are followed, chosen ones fulfil their destiny and evil is vanquished.
  • (19) Italy had never before conquered on penalties in the World Cup finals and were even vanquished by France in that fashion at the quarter-final stage eight years ago.
  • (20) Little wonder, then, that after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the nomination in South Carolina – seizing the lead and vanquishing competitor Jeb Bush – his first stop to boast was at a convention center in Atlanta.