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"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

103 Moby Thesaurus words for "subscription":
   John Hancock, OK, X, acceptance, accommodation, accordance,
   affirmance, affirmation, alms, alms fee, approbation, approval,
   authentication, authorization, autograph, award, awarding,
   bestowal, bestowment, certification, charity, christcross, cipher,
   collection, commitment, communication, concession, conferment,
   conferral, confirmation, contribution, cost, countermark,
   countersign, countersignature, counterstamp, cross, deliverance,
   delivery, device, dole, donation, donative, dues, endorsement,
   endowment, fee, furnishment, gifting, giving, go-ahead, grant,
   granting, green light, hand, handout, impartation, impartment,
   imprimatur, initials, investiture, investment, liberality, mark,
   mark of signature, monogram, nod, notarization, obligation, offer,
   offering, offertory, okay, payment, permission, pittance, pledge,
   presentation, presentment, price, promise, provision, ratification,
   remittance, rubber stamp, sanction, seal, sigil, sign manual,
   signature, signet, stamp, stamp of approval, supplying, surrender,
   the nod, tithe, validation, visa, vise, votive offering,
   vouchsafement, warrant



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SUBSCRIPTION, contracts. The placing a signature at the bottom of a written
or printed engagement; or it is the attestation of a witness by so writing
his name; but it has been holden that the attestation of an illiterate
witness, by making his mark, is a sufficient subscription. 7 Bing. 457; 2
Ves. 454; Atk. 177; 1 Yes. jr. 11; 3 P. Wms. 253; 1 V. & B. 362. Vide To
sign.
     2. By subscription is also understood the act by which a person
contracts, in writing, to furnish a sum of money for a particular purpose;
as, a subscription to a charitable institution, a subscription for a book,
for a newspaper, and the like.