Subvert: meaning, example and synonyms
Subvertv. To undermine the power or authority of an established system or institution.
Example
The author's satirical essays subverted the era's assumptions about class, portraying wealthy narrators as less wise than their servants.
- Part of speech
- verb
- Synonyms
- undermine, sabotage, undercut, weaken
- Antonyms
- support, uphold, bolster, reinforce
- Memory tip
- sub (under) + vertere (turn): to turn something over from beneath.
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Check yourself: Subvert in context
The playwright ______ the conventions of classical tragedy: instead of a noble hero brought low, her protagonist is a servant whose cleverness topples the court.
Answer: subverted. Turning the noble-hero formula upside down undermines the convention. Convened, vacated and augmented don't mean to overturn.
Officials accused the smugglers of attempting to ______ the trade embargo by routing goods through a neutral port, thereby defeating the policy's purpose.
Answer: subvert. Getting around an embargo to defeat its purpose undermines it. Presage, convene and extrapolate don't mean to undermine a policy.