[SUB- 7 b. Cf. F. sousclasse.] A subdivision of a class; Nat. Hist. a group of orders ranking next to a class.

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1819.  G. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 77. Dr. Leach … considered the Malacostraca and Entomostraca as sub-classes.

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1857.  A. Gray, First Less. Bot. (1866), 177. Series, Class, Subclass, Order, or Family, Suborder, Tribe, Subtribe, Genus, Subgenus or Section, Species, Variety.

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1880.  Günther, Fishes, 65. The lowermost sub-class of fishes, which comprises one form only, the Lancelet.

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1882.  Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 161. Dividing this class of structures into two sub-classes, hairs and emergences.

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  attrib.  1869.  Dk. of Argyll, Primeval Man, II. 62. One of Cuvier’s sub-class divisions.

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  So Subclass v. trans., to place in a subclass.

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1894–5.  16th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 72. The motive must be subclassed as sortilegic.

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