tame

tame adj Tame, subdued, submissive are comparable when they mean docile and tractable or incapable of asserting one's will either permanently or for the time being.

Tame implies opposition to wild and in its basic sense applies chiefly to animals that have been domesticated and therefore accustomed to control by men

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tame horses

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In extended use it also applies to persons, or less directly to the acts and words of persons, whose wills have been broken or who have allowed themselves to be dominated by the will of another

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the tribunal lately so insolent, became on a sudden strangely tame— Macaulay

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Often the term implies little more than a temperamental lack of proper spirit or independence, or undue docility or timidity

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a tame reply

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tame acquiescence in tradition and routine— Babbitt

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Subdued stresses quietness and in its most general sense implies a toning down with a loss or veiling of all vehemence or intensity

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a subdued, passionate, desperate voice— Styron

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subdued colors

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In reference to persons, their acts, words, or characters, it implies a real or apparent domination by or subjection to another, or a similar response to circumstances, and a resulting quietness or meekness that suggests a broken will, complete dependence, or excessive timorousness

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Zeke's natural manner with his mother was well-trained deception, a subdued mockery— Farrell

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she had a mild, subdued, expiring look— Crabbe

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in such a man, so gentle and subdued ... a race illustrious for heroic deeds, humbled, but not degraded, may expire— Wordsworth

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Submissive implies the state of mind of one who has yielded his will to control by another and who unquestioningly or humbly obeys what is ordered or accepts what is given

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meek, humble, timid persons . . . who are cautious, prudent, and submissive, leave things very much as they find them— Benson

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the bigot is conventional, rigid ... is submissive to authority, suppressive of the weak— Ernst

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the perverse, negative will . . . has to be made submissive before it can become positive and integrated with the heart and mind— Henry Miller

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Analogous words: tractable, amenable, docile, biddable, *obedient: *timid, timorous: pliant, pliable (see PLASTIC)

Antonyms: fierce