NOUN (4)

1. a payment for consecutive issues of a newspaper or magazine for a given period of time;

2. agreement expressed by (or as if expressed by) signing your name;

3. a pledged contribution;

4. the act of signing your name; writing your signature (as on a document);
- Example: "the deed was attested by the subscription of his signature"

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Subscription \Sub*scrip"tion\, n. [L. subscriptio: cf. F.
   souscription.]
   1. The act of subscribing.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is subscribed. Specifically:
      (a) A paper to which a signature is attached.
      (b) The signature attached to a paper.
      (c) Consent or attestation by underwriting the name.
      (d) Sum subscribed; amount of sums subscribed; as, an
          individual subscription to a fund.
          [1913 Webster]

   3. (Eccl.) The acceptance of articles, or other tests tending
      to promote uniformity; esp. (Ch. of Eng.), formal assent
      to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer,
      required before ordination.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Submission; obedience. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            You owe me no subscription.           --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. (Pharm.) That part of a prescription which contains the
      direction to the apothecary.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

subscription
    n 1: a payment for consecutive issues of a newspaper or magazine
         for a given period of time
    2: agreement expressed by (or as if expressed by) signing your
       name
    3: a pledged contribution
    4: the act of signing your name; writing your signature (as on a
       document); "the deed was attested by the subscription of his
       signature"