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One of several heraldic bearings somewhat less common than an ordinary. See Ordinary.

Placed in a lower order, class, or rank; holding a lower or inferior position. The several kinds and subordinate species of each are easily distinguished. Woodward.

The act of subordinating, placing in a lower order, or subjecting.

Tending to subordinate; expressing subordination; used to introduce a subordinate sentence; as, a subordinative conjunction.

A group intermediate in importance between an order and a subclass.

The ordination of a person to fill a station already occupied; especially, the ordination by an ecclesiastical official, during his lifetime, of his successor. Fuller.

In the Eucharist, the versicles immediately before the preface, inviting the people to join in the service by "lifting up the heart" to God.

cial vengeance or punishment, or of authority and power. He [the ruler] beareth not the sword in vain. Rom. xiii. 4. She quits the balance, and resigns the sword. Dryden.

Shaped like a sword; ensiform, as the long, flat leaves of the Iris, cattail, and the like.

A humming bird (Docimastes ensiferus) having a very long, slender bill, exceeding the length of the body of the bird.

Girded with a sword. Milton.

One who uses, or fights with, a sword; a swordsman; a soldier; a cutthroat. [Obs.] Shak.

ed as a food fish. The bones of the upper jaw are consolidated, and form a long, rigid, swordlike beak; the dorsal fin is high and without distinct spines; the ventral fins are absent. The adult is destitute of teeth. It becomes sixteen feet or more long.

The spotted gunnel (Murænoides gunnellus). [Prov. Eng.]

Slashing with a sword. Tennyson.

Destitute of a sword.

A swordsman. "Sinewy swordmen." Shak.

Fencing; a sword fight.

A fencer; a gladiator; one who exhibits his skill in the use of the sword.

One skilled of a use of the sword; a professor of the science of fencing; a fencer.