subagent

sub·a·gent
S1U1B3A1G2E1N1T1
Canada, US, UK/ˌsʌbˈeɪ̯.d͡ʒənt/Australia, New Zealand/ˌsɐbˈæɪ̯.d͡ʒənt/Scotland/ˌsʌbˈe.d͡ʒənt/Scotland/ˌsʌbˈe.d͡ʒʌnt/

noun

A person employed by an agent to transact the whole, or a part, of the business entrusted to the latter.

UncommonScrabble 11

Meanings

nounsubagent (plural subagents)

plural subagents · alternative sub-agent

  1. lawA person employed by an agent to transact the whole, or a part, of the business entrusted to the latter.

    Where a subagent is appointed pursuant to actual or implied authority from the principal the principal is liable directly to the subagent for his compensation .

    1915, Harry Noyes Greene, William Mark McKinney, David Shephard Garland, American and English Annotated Cases, page 22
    2 more examples

    Where a subagent is appointed by authority of the principal, the subagent is, so far as relates to third persons, the agent of the principal, and the acts of the subagent are binding upon the principal;

    1918, Israel A. Washburne, Principles of the Law of Contracts, page 37

    Confusing relationships, disclosures, and conflicts arise if the licensee acts as subagent with one buyer and buyer's agent with another buyer on the same property.

    2003, Donna K. Peeples, Minor Peeples, Texas Real Estate Agency, page 120
  2. computingAn autonomous process that is launched by and communicates with another agent in order to handle part of the task that is the objective of that other agent.

    On a UNIX system, the coordinating agent and subagent processes will have different names.

    2003, Dwaine Snow, Thomas X. Phan, Advanced DBA Certification Guide and Reference for DB2 Universal Database v8
    2 more examples

    An SNMP subagent supports its own MIB, which might be an RFC-architected MIV, or might be a proprietary (referered to as enterprise-specific) MIB. For example, a TCP/IP subagent would most likely support the IP, ICMP, TCP, UDP, and Interface groups defined in RFC 1213.

    2006, Lydia Parziale, Dr. Wei Liu, Carolyn Matthews, TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview, page 632

    Originally, the purpose of creating an AI subagent will be to enhance new horizons in protocol and use it to help protect human agents in the field.

    2019, Frances Mahan, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Us

Origin

From sub- + agent. First attested in 1683.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

subagent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subagent

MLA

“subagent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subagent. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “subagent,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subagent.

Source: subagent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.