: placement in a lower class, rank, or position : the act or process of subordinating someone or something or the state of being subordinated
As a prescriptive text, moreover, the Bible has been interpreted as justifying the subordination of women to men. Cullen Murphy
The price is individual subordination to the group and limited autonomy of the nuclear family. Corinne N. Nydegger
After 1688, as before, the message was one of subordination to divinely constituted authority, whether of kings or of one's social superiors. Richard W. Davis