subverse

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verb

To subvert.

OriginLatin subversus →
Scrabble 13
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Meanings

subverse1

verbsubverse (third-person singular simple present subverses, present participle subversing, simple past and past participle subversed)

present singular third person subverses · participle present subversing · participle past subversed · past subversed

  1. obsoletetransitiveTo subvert.

    But a usurping ape, with guile suborned, / Had all subversed

    1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC

subverse2

nounsubverse (plural subverses)

plural subverses

  1. literatureA kind of alternative universe.

    You must be picking up olfactory emanations from a subverse destined to be your neighbor.

    2011, Adam Douglas, The Square Root of Negative Forty-Two, page 108
    1 more example

    They had taken on a subverse being and come out on top, and although they did not name what had killed them, it must have been a cosmic being of supreme power.

    2023, Adair Hart, The Final Evolution: Book 15 of The Evaran Chronicles

Origin

subverse · verb

  1. Latinsubversus
  2. Englishsubverse

From Latin subversus, past participle of subvertere. See subvert.

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →

subverse · noun

sub- + -verse

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

subserve
Cite this entry
APA

subverse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subverse

MLA

“subverse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subverse. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “subverse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subverse.

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