(n) a clergyman an order below deacon; one of the Holy Orders in the unreformed western Christian church and the eastern Catholic Churches but now suppressed in the Roman Catholic Church
n. [ Pref. sub- + deacon: cf. L. subdiaconus. ] (Eccl.) One belonging to an order in the Roman Catholic Church, next interior to the order of deacons; also, a member of a minor order in the Greek Church. [ 1913 Webster ]