: a lease by a tenant or lessee of part or all of leased premises to another person but with the original tenant retaining some right or interest under the original lease
subleased; subleasing; subleases
: to make or obtain a sublease of
Example Sentences
Verb
She subleased her apartment to a student for the summer.
The agency subleases office space from a law firm.
Recent Examples on the Web
Catherine Carlock, BostonGlobe.com, 10 May 2023
Even more sublease space has hit the market in the past couple weeks alone, a sign that employers are starting to get serious about their post-pandemic office plans and long-term flexible work, said David Goldstein, vice chairman at Savills.
—Natalie Wong, Fortune, 10 May 2022
Union Station Investco has sublease rights through USRC.
—Washington Post, 14 Apr. 2022
But those empty space numbers don’t include the huge supply of sublease offices on the market — almost 10 million square feet at the end of the first quarter.
—Dallas News, 1 Apr. 2022
According to CoStar’s data, a record 24 million square feet of office space is available for sublease in Manhattan — a 56 percent rise from the start of 2020, and a figure far outstripping the 16 million square feet on offer at the height of the Great Recession.
—New York Times, 30 Apr. 2021
When factoring in all of the space currently being offered for lease, including inventory under construction and sublease opportunities, there is nearly 5 million square feet of office space available for the taking — or more than 40 percent of downtown’s available stock.
—Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Apr. 2021
After Dropbox listed around half of the building for sublease, Vir Biotechnology took 133,896 square feet late last year.
—Roland Li, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Mar. 2021
That agreement may constitute a sublease.
—Thomas Goodwin Smith, Baltimore Sun, 19 Apr. 2023
Roger Vincentstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 29 Jan. 2023
Companies have dumped more than 11 million square feet of excess offices on the market in the D-FW area seeking to sublease to other tenants.
—Steve Brown, Dallas News, 4 Apr. 2023
Roku will also be subleasing offices that aren’t currently occupied.
—David Meyer, Fortune, 30 Mar. 2023
Reddit is downsizing from its current 78,000-square-foot office at 1455 Market St. The company is subleasing the space from Block, formerly Square, in a deal that expires in September.
—Roland Li, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Mar. 2023
To do so, city government — likely through the Economic Development Corporation — could roll out a program to negotiate master leases with landlords that have vacant property at some scale and then sublease them to local purveyors, ideally at a slightly below-market rent.
—Carl Swanson, Curbed, 19 July 2021
In Plano’s Legacy business park, CBRE is looking for tenants to sublease a new 327,000-square-foot office tower that was built for Reata Pharmaceuticals.
—Dallas News, 9 Dec. 2022
But the e-commerce giant last year started paring back growth in its warehousing operations and began to sublease some of its space as e-commerce growth slowed.
—Liz Young, WSJ, 5 Jan. 2023
Commercial property firm CBRE Group has been hired to sublease the offices, which occupy one of the largest blocks of space in the mixed-use development.
—Dallas News, 16 Aug. 2022
See More
Noun
Meanwhile available sublease space reached a 20-year high of more than 1.6 million square feet in the first three months of the year — a definite shift for an industry where availability of premium lab space has typically been near zero.
—Catherine Carlock, BostonGlobe.com, 10 May 2023
Even more sublease space has hit the market in the past couple weeks alone, a sign that employers are starting to get serious about their post-pandemic office plans and long-term flexible work, said David Goldstein, vice chairman at Savills.
—Natalie Wong, Fortune, 10 May 2022
Union Station Investco has sublease rights through USRC.
—Washington Post, 14 Apr. 2022
But those empty space numbers don’t include the huge supply of sublease offices on the market — almost 10 million square feet at the end of the first quarter.
—Dallas News, 1 Apr. 2022
According to CoStar’s data, a record 24 million square feet of office space is available for sublease in Manhattan — a 56 percent rise from the start of 2020, and a figure far outstripping the 16 million square feet on offer at the height of the Great Recession.
—New York Times, 30 Apr. 2021
When factoring in all of the space currently being offered for lease, including inventory under construction and sublease opportunities, there is nearly 5 million square feet of office space available for the taking — or more than 40 percent of downtown’s available stock.
—Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Apr. 2021
After Dropbox listed around half of the building for sublease, Vir Biotechnology took 133,896 square feet late last year.
—Roland Li, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Mar. 2021
That agreement may constitute a sublease.
—Thomas Goodwin Smith, Baltimore Sun, 19 Apr. 2023
Verb
Nearly a fifth of the L.A. County’s office space was unleased at the end of last year, according to CBRE, and more empty space may hit the market soon as tenants hoping to save money try to sublease unwanted space due to concerns of a constricting economy and potential layoffs.
—Roger Vincentstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 29 Jan. 2023
Companies have dumped more than 11 million square feet of excess offices on the market in the D-FW area seeking to sublease to other tenants.
—Steve Brown, Dallas News, 4 Apr. 2023
Roku will also be subleasing offices that aren’t currently occupied.
—David Meyer, Fortune, 30 Mar. 2023
Reddit is downsizing from its current 78,000-square-foot office at 1455 Market St. The company is subleasing the space from Block, formerly Square, in a deal that expires in September.
—Roland Li, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Mar. 2023
To do so, city government — likely through the Economic Development Corporation — could roll out a program to negotiate master leases with landlords that have vacant property at some scale and then sublease them to local purveyors, ideally at a slightly below-market rent.
—Carl Swanson, Curbed, 19 July 2021
In Plano’s Legacy business park, CBRE is looking for tenants to sublease a new 327,000-square-foot office tower that was built for Reata Pharmaceuticals.
—Dallas News, 9 Dec. 2022
But the e-commerce giant last year started paring back growth in its warehousing operations and began to sublease some of its space as e-commerce growth slowed.
—Liz Young, WSJ, 5 Jan. 2023
Commercial property firm CBRE Group has been hired to sublease the offices, which occupy one of the largest blocks of space in the mixed-use development.
—Dallas News, 16 Aug. 2022
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sublease.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Dictionary Entries Near sublease
Cite this Entry
“Sublease.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sublease. Accessed 5 Jun. 2023.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
sublease
noun
sub·lease
ˈsəb-ˈlēs,
-ˌlēs
: a lease by a tenant of part or all of leased property to another person
sublease
verb
Legal Definition
sublease
noun
sub·lease
ˈsəb-ˌlēs 
: a lease that is given by a tenant or lessee to another person of part or all of the leased premises for a shorter term than that of the original lease and under which some interest is retained compare assignment of lease at assignment
sublease
transitive verb
More from Merriam-Webster on sublease
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for sublease
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