[ad. med.L. subdiāconātus, f. subdiāconus SUBDEACON; cf. F. sous-diaconat.] The office or rank of subdeacon.
1725. trans. Dupins Eccl. Hist. 17th C., I. v. 178. The Manner of conferring the Subdiaconate.
1847. Maskell, Mon. Rit., III. p. civ. These minor orders, and I now include the subdiaconate, were not of divine institution.
1867. H. C. Lea, Sacerd. Celib., iii. (1884), 54. The restriction on matrimony has never at any time extended below the subdiaconate.