Word Study
subversive
CIDE DICTIONARY
subversive, a. [Cf. F. subversif.].
Tending to subvert; having a tendency to overthrow and ruin. [1913 Webster]
"Lying is a vice subversive of the very ends and design of conversation." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
subversive, adj. & n.
--adj. (of a person, organization, activity, etc.) seeking to subvert (esp. a government).
--n. a subversive person; a revolutionary.
--adj. (of a person, organization, activity, etc.) seeking to subvert (esp. a government).
--n. a subversive person; a revolutionary.
Derivative
subversion n. subversively adv. subversiveness n.
Etymology
med.L subversivus (as SUBVERT)
THESAURUS
subversive
Bolshevik, Bolshevist, Bolshie, Carbonarist, Carbonaro, Castroist, Castroite, Charley, Communist, Cong, Fenian, Guevarist, Jacobin, Leninist, Maoist, Marxist, Mau-Mau, Puritan, Red, Red Republican, Roundhead, Sinn Feiner, Trojan horse, Trotskyist, Trotskyite, VC, Vietcong, Wobbly, Yankee, Yankee Doodle, agitator, altered, anarch, anarchist, anarchistic, anarcho-syndicalist, baneful, better, bonnet rouge, brawler, breakaway, calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, changeable, changed, collaborationist, collaborator, consuming, consumptive, converted, criminal syndicalist, crypto, deadly, defector, degenerate, demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying, destructive, devastating, deviant, disastrous, dissident, divergent, doomful, extreme, extreme left-winger, extremist, extremistic, factious, fatal, fateful, fellow traveler, fifth column, fifth columnist, fraternizer, fratricidal, frondeur, improved, insubordinate, insurgent, insurrectionary, insurrectionist, insurrecto, internecine, left-wing extremist, lunatic fringe, malcontent, maverick, metamorphosed, metastasized, mild radical, mildly radical, modified, mutant, mutineer, mutineering, mutinous, nihilist, nihilistic, nonconformist, parlor Bolshevik, parlor pink, pink, pinko, qualified, quisling, radical, ravaging, rebel, rebellious, rebuilt, red, reformed, renewed, revived, revolter, revolutional, revolutionary, revolutionary junta, revolutioner, revolutionist, revolutionizer, rioter, riotous, ruining, ruinous, saboteur, sans-culotte, sans-culottist, security risk, seditionary, seditious, self-destructive, subversionary, suicidal, syndicalist, terrorist, traitor, traitorous, transformed, translated, transmuted, treacherous, treasonable, treasonous, turbulent, ultra, ultraconservative, ultraist, ultraistic, underground, unmitigated, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, wasteful, wasting, withering, worse, yippieROGET THESAURUS
subversive
Destruction
N destruction, waste, dissolution, breaking up, diruption, disruption, consumption, disorganization, fall, downfall, devastation, ruin, perdition, crash, eboulement, smash, havoc, delabrement, debacle, break down, break up, fall apart, prostration, desolation, bouleversement, wreck, wrack, shipwreck, cataclysm, washout, extinction, annihilation, destruction of life, knock-down blow, doom, crack of doom, destroying, demolition, demolishment, overthrow, subversion, suppression, abolition, biblioclasm, sacrifice, ravage, razzia, inactivation, incendiarism, revolution, extirpation, beginning of the end, commencement de la fin, road to ruin, dilapidation, sabotage, destroyed, perishing, trembling to its fall, nodding to its fall, tottering to its fall, in course of destruction, extinct, all-destroying, all-devouring, all-engulfing, destructive, subversive, ruinous, devastating, incendiary, deletory, destroying, suicidal, deadly, with crushing effect, with a sledge hammer, delenda est Carthago, dum Roma deliberat Saguntum perit, ecrasez l'infame.For further exploring for "subversive" in Webster Dictionary Online