sublease

1 of 2

noun

sub·​lease ˈsəb-ˈlēs How to pronounce sublease (audio)
-ˌlēs
: 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

sublease

2 of 2

verb

subleased; subleasing; subleases

transitive verb

: to make or obtain a sublease of

Examples of sublease in a Sentence

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
Noun
In a lawsuit filed Monday, Insight Terminal Solutions, a company owned by a Southern California hedge fund, claims city officials illegally breached ITS’ sublease to build a West Oakland marine terminal that would ship bulk goods overseas. Shomik Mukherjee, The Mercury News, 11 Mar. 2024 Availability measures empty offices available for lease directly from a property owner or indirectly from a tenant through a sublease, according to a report this month. Put another way, this means more than one-third of the office space in downtown San Jose is empty and available for rent. George Avalos, The Mercury News, 26 Jan. 2024 Based on data extracted from CoStar and our own monthly tracking of office asking rents across all major U.S. office markets, office subleases around the country are typically priced lower than what landlords are asking while traditional leases on average haven’t experienced adjustments in rents. David Marino, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024 Porter County commissioners own the visitors center and the National Park Service subleases from IDT. Shelley Jones, Chicago Tribune, 31 Jan. 2024 Roku has put up for sublease buildings at 1155 Coleman Avenue, which is the current Roku headquarters building, and at 1143 Coleman Avenue, according to a brochure being circulated by Colliers, a commercial real estate firm that is seeking tenants for the buildings that are being made available. George Avalos, The Mercury News, 12 Jan. 2024 The availability of both new office space and sublease space — along with landlords’ increasing willingness to shell out generous tenant improvement packages or free rent — is making downtown Boston and the surrounding region something of a tenant’s market. Catherine Carlock, BostonGlobe.com, 25 July 2023 Almost 11 million square feet of sublease offices were on the market in Dallas-Fort Worth at midyear, according to estimates from commercial property firm Transwestern. Steve Brown, Dallas News, 10 July 2023 The office buildings that Roku is offering for sublease could potentially accommodate 600 to 900 workers. George Avalos, The Mercury News, 12 Jan. 2024
Verb
The 48,000-square-foot triangular lot at South Alameda and East 14th streets, where the fire tore through, had been leased by an absentee landlord, who subleased parcels of the property to others and failed to pay Caltrans rent for more than a year, according to the state. Rachel Uranga, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2024 The warehouse, packed with $5 million worth of cargo stolen from BNSF Railway, belonged to the California Department of Transportation but had been leased or subleased by thieves the detectives were still trying to identify. Malia Wollan, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2024 ByteDance is in discussions to sublease at least one of the buildings, according to the sources. George Avalos, The Mercury News, 12 Jan. 2024 OpenAI just moved into 487,000 square feet of prime office space in Mission Bay, subleasing from Uber. Rebecca Lynn, Fortune, 27 Dec. 2023 In September, the state had filed a lawsuit alleging that Apex had stopped paying rent for the past year while subleasing the property out to at least five other businesses. WIRED, 16 Nov. 2023 Other tenants who are still locked in to longer-term leases have been subleasing their unneeded space, sometimes at a 50% discount off the main leasing rate, Morris said. Detroit Free Press, 3 Jan. 2024 Emergency crews raced to clear debris and hazardous materials after the Nov. 11 fire, which arson investigators believe was started intentionally on Caltrans property leased to a company that was subleasing it to a handful of small businesses. Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2023 The area under the interstate had been leased from the California Transportation Department by a company that had illegally subleased it to five or possibly six other companies, officials said. Phil Helsel, NBC News, 15 Nov. 2023

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

First Known Use

Noun

1758, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1824, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sublease was in 1758

Dictionary Entries Near sublease

Cite this Entry

“Sublease.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sublease. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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 How to pronounce sublease (audio)
: 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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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