- inferior
- inferior n Inferior, underling, subordinate mean one, usually a person, who is lower than another.Inferior, the most inclusive of these terms, may be applied to anyone that is lower in some significant matter (as rank, station, quality, or value) than another; the term suggests, explicitly or by implication, a comparison, sometimes with those obviously and individually higher or superior but sometimes with those merely belonging to a level felt as higher{
that an inferior should punish a superior, is against nature— Locke
}{he would be judged by his peers, and safeguarded against the obtuse hostility of his inferiors— Mencken
}{Napoleon was his equal or superior in the first, gravely his inferior in the second— Belloc
}{they are gracious to equals, abrupt to inferiors— Temple Fielding
}Underling routinely implies subjection to the will or wishes of another; it may apply to a condition from that of a slave or servant to that of one who is just below the master but ordinarily it implies some degree of contempt{the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings—Shak.
}{the disconsidered underling was in danger of becoming his master— Buchan
}{scientists need to be used not as lackeys or underlings— Vannevar Bush
}Subordinate likewise suggests subjection but has an entirely different flavor from underling. The term implies a being in subjection to the will or wishes of another but seldom carries a suggestion of disdain and usually expresses no more than relative position in a hierarchy{his tendency to meddle and give orders to Welles and his subordinates annoyed Welles— Beale
}{marked in the eyes of his young subordinate a subtle light— Guy Fowler
}{matters . . . talked over endlessly by . . . Captain Anthony's faithful sub- ordina tes—Conrad
}Analogous words: dependent, subject (see corresponding adjectives at SUBORDINATE)Antonyms: superiorContrasted words: *chief, head, master, leader
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.