subject > define

noun

• The subject matter of a conversation or discussion.
  • usage: "he didn't want to discuss that subject"; "it was a very sensitive topic"; "his letters were always on the theme of love"
  • synonyms: topic, theme
• Something (a person or object or scene) selected by an artist or photographer for graphic representation.
  • usage: "a moving picture of a train is more dramatic than a still picture of the same subject"
  • synonyms: content, depicted object
• A branch of knowledge.
  • usage: "in what discipline is his doctorate"; "teachers should be well trained in their subject"; "anthropology is the study of human beings"
  • synonyms: discipline, subject area, subject field, field, field of study, study, bailiwick
• Some situation or event that is thought about.
  • usage: "he kept drifting off the topic"; "he had been thinking about the subject for several years"; "it is a matter for the police"
  • synonyms: topic, issue, matter
• Grammar) one of the two main constituents of a sentence; the grammatical constituent about which something is predicated. (
• A person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; someone who is an object of investigation.
  • usage: "the subjects for this investigation were selected randomly"; "the cases that we studied were drawn from two different communities"
  • synonyms: case, guinea pig
• A person who owes allegiance to that nation.
  • usage: "a monarch has a duty to his subjects"
  • synonyms: national
• Logic) the first term of a proposition. (

verb

• Cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable to.
  • usage: "He subjected me to his awful poetry"; "The sergeant subjected the new recruits to many drills"; "People in Chernobyl were subjected to radiation"
• Make accountable for.
  • usage: "He did not want to subject himself to the judgments of his superiors"
• Make subservient; force to submit or subdue.
  • synonyms: subjugate
• Refer for judgment or consideration.
  • usage: "The lawyers submitted the material to the court"
  • synonyms: submit

adjective

• Possibly accepting or permitting.
  • usage: "a passage capable of misinterpretation"; "open to interpretation"; "an issue open to question"; "the time is fixed by the director and players and therefore subject to much variation"
  • synonyms: capable, open
• Being under the power or sovereignty of another or others.
  • usage: "subject peoples"; "a dependent prince"
  • synonyms: dependent
• Likely to be affected by something.
  • usage: "the bond is subject to taxation"; "he is subject to fits of depression"

• (a.) Placed or situated under; lying below or in a lower situation.
• (a.) Obedient; submissive.
• (a.) That which is placed under the authority, dominion, control or influence of something else.
• (a.) That in which any quality, attribute or relation, whether spiritual or material, inheres or to which any of these appertain; substance; substratum.
• (a.) That which is subjected or submitted to, any physical operation or process; specifically (Anat.), a dead body used for the purpose of dissection.
• (n.) The principal theme or leading thought or phrase, on which a composition or a movement is based.
• (v.t.) To cause to undergo; as, to subject a substance to a white heat; to subject a person to a rigid test.
• (v.t.) To bring under control, power or dominion; to make subject; to subordinate; to subdue.
• (a.) That which is brought under thought or examination; that which is taken up for discussion or concerning which anything is said or done.
• (a.) That of which anything is affirmed or predicated; the theme of a proposition or discourse; that which is spoken of; as, the nominative case is the subject of the verb.
• (a.) Hence, that substance or being which is conscious of its own operations; the mind; the thinking agent or principal; the ego. Cf. Object, n., 2.
• (v.t.) To make subservient.
• (a.) Specifically: One who is under the authority of a ruler and is governed by his laws; one who owes allegiance to a sovereign or a sovereign state; as, a subject of Queen Victoria; a British subject; a subject of the United States.
• (a.) Placed under the power of another; specifically (International Law), owing allegiance to a particular sovereign or state; as, Jamaica is subject to Great Britain.
• (a.) The person who is treated of; the hero of a piece; the chief character.
• (v.t.) To submit; to make accountable.
• (a.) Exposed; liable; prone; disposed; as, a country subject to extreme heat; men subject to temptation.
• (n.) The incident, scene, figure, group, etc., which it is the aim of the artist to represent.
• (v.t.) To expose; to make obnoxious or liable; as, credulity subjects a person to impositions.

Subject refers to a bid or offer that cannot be executed without confirmation from the customer. In other words, not firm, but a bid/offer that needs additional information/confirmation before becoming firm and is therefore still negotiable.