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say it: suhb-VURT
subvert is a verb meaning "cause the downfall of; of rulers". It carries 4 recorded senses.
cause the downfall of; of rulers
“The Czar was overthrown”
“subvert the ruling class”
corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
“debauch the young people with wine and women”
“Socrates was accused of corrupting young men”
“Do school counselors subvert young children?”
“corrupt the morals”
destroy property or hinder normal operations
“The Resistance sabotaged railroad operations during the war”
destroy completely
“we must not let our civil liberties be subverted by the current crisis”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for subvert come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.