King James Bible Dictionary

UNDER, preposition

1. Beneath; below; so as to have something over or above. He stood under a tree; the carriage is under cover. We may see things under water; we have a cellar under the whole house.

2. In a state of pupilage or subjection; as a youth under a tutor; a ward under a guardian; colonies under the British government.

I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. Matthew 8:8.

3. In a less degree than. The effect of medicine is sometimes under and sometimes above or over its natural strength.

4. For less than. He would not sell the horse under forty pounds.

5. Less than; below. There are parishes in England under forty pounds a year.

6. With the pretense of; with the cover or pretext of. He does this under the name of love. This argument is not to be evaded under some plausible distinction.

7. With less than.

Several young men could never leave the pulpit under half a dozen conceits.

8. In a degree, state or rank inferior to.

It was too great an honor for any man under a duke.

9. In a state of being loaded; in a state of bearing or being burdened; as, to travel under a heavy load; to live under extreme oppression.

10. In a state of oppression or subjection to, the state in which a person is considered as bearing or having any thing laid upon him; as, to have fortitude under the evils of life; to have patience under pain, or under misfortunes; to behave like a christian under reproaches and injuries.

11. In a state of liability or obligation. No man shall trespass but under the pains and penalties of the law. Attend to the conditions under which you enter upon your office. We are under the necessity of obeying the laws. Nuns are under vows of chastity. We all lie under the curse of the law, until redeemed by Christ.

12. In the state of bearing and being known by; as men trading under the firm of Wright _ Co.

13. In the state of; in the enjoyment or possession of. We live under the gospel dispensation.

14. During the time of. The American revolution commenced under the administration of lord North.

15. Not having reached or arrived to; below. He left three sons under age.

16. Represented by; in the form of. Morpheus is represented under the figure of a boy asleep. [But morph, in Ethiopic, signifies cessation, rest.]

17. In the state of protection or defense. under favor of the prince, our author was promoted. The enemy landed under cover of their batteries.

18. As bearing a particular character.

The duke may be mentioned under the double capacity of a poet and a divine.

19. Being contained or comprehended in.

UNDER this head may be mentioned the contests between the popes and the secular princes.

20. Attested by; signed by. Here is a deed under his hand and seal.

He has left us evidence under his own hand.

21. In a state of being handled, treated or discussed, or of being the subject of. The bill is now under discussion. We shall have the subject under consideration next week.

22. In subordination to. under God, this is our only safety.

23. In subjection or bondage to; ruled or influenced by; in a moral sense; within the dominion of.

They are all under sin. Romans 3:9.

UNDER a signature, bearing, as a name or title.

UNDER way, in seamen's language, moving; in a condition to make progress.

To keep under to hold in subjection or control; to restrain.

I keep under my body. 1 Corinthians 9:20.

UN'DER, adjective Lower in degree; subject; subordinate; as an under officer; under sheriff.

UNDER is much used in composition. For the etymologies, see the principal words.

UNDERAC'TION, noun Subordinate action; action not essential to the main story.

The least episodes or underactions - are parts necessary to the main design.

UNDERA'GENT, noun A subordinate agent.

UNDERBEAR, verb transitive

1. To support; to endure.

2. To line; to guard; as cloth of gold underborne with blue tinsel. obsolete

UNDERBEARER, noun In funerals, one who sustains the corpse.

UNDERBID', verb transitive To bid or offer less than another; as in auctions, when a contract or service is set up to the lowest bidder.

UN'DERBRED, adjective Of inferior breeding or manners.

UN'DERBRUSH, noun Shrubs and small trees in a wood or forest, growing under large trees.

UNDERBUY, verb transitive To buy at less than a thing is worth. [Not used.]

UNDERCHAMBERLAIN, noun A deputy chamberlain of the exchequer.

UN'DERCLERK, noun A clerk subordinate to the principal clerk.

UN'DERCROFT, noun A vault under the choir or chancel of a church; also, a vault or secret walk under ground.

UNDERCUR'RENT, noun A current below the surface of the water.

UNDERDITCH', verb transitive To form a deep ditch or trench to drain the surface of land.

UNDERDO, verb intransitive

1. To act below one's abilities.

2. To do less than is requisite.

UN'DERDOSE, noun A quantity less than a dose.

UNDERDO'SE, verb intransitive To take small doses.

UN'DERDRAIN, noun A drain or trench below the surface of the ground.

UNDERDRA'IN, verb transitive To drain by cutting a deep channel below the surface.

UNDERFAC'TION, noun A subordinate faction.

UNDERF'ARMER, noun A subordinate farmer.

UNDERFEL'LOW, noun A mean sorry wretch.

UNDERFIL'LING, noun The lower part of a building.

UNDERFONG', verb intransitive To take in hand. obsolete

UN'DERFOOT, adverb Beneath.

UN'DERFOOT, adjective Low; base; abject; trodden down.

UNDERFUR'NISH, verb transitive To supply with less than enough.

UNDERFUR'NISHED, participle passive Supplied with less than enough.

UNDERFUR'NISHING, participle present tense Furnishing with less than enough.

UNDERFUR'ROW, adverb In agriculture, to sow underforrow, is to plow in seed. This phrase is applied to other operations, in which something is covered by the furrow-slice.

UNDERGIRD', verb transitive [See Gird.] To bind below; to gird round the bottom. Acts 27:1.

(Acts 27:17) [SHIP]

UNDERGO', verb transitive

1. To suffer; to endure something burdensome or painful to the body or the mind; as, to undergo toil and fatigue; to undergo pain; to undergo grief or anxiety; to undergo the operation of amputation.

2.To pass through. Bread in the stomach undergoes the process of digestion; it undergoes a material alteration.

3. To sustain without fainting, yielding or sinking. Can you undergo the operation, or the fatigue?

4. To be the bearer of; to possess.

Virtues - as infinite as man may undergo [Not in use.]

5. To support; to hazard.

I have mov'd certain Romans to undergo with me an enterprise.

6. To be subject to.

Claudio undergoes my challenge. obsolete

UNDERGO'ING, participle present tense Suffering; enduring.

UNDERGONE, participle passive undergawn'. Borne; suffered; sustained; endured. Who can tell how many evils and pains he has undergone?

UNDERGRAD'UATE, noun A student or member of a university or college, who has not taken his first degree.

UNDERGROUND', noun A place or space beneath the surface of the ground.

UN'DERGROUND, adjective Being below the surface of the ground; as an underground story or apartment.

UNDERGROUND', adverb Beneath the surface of the earth.

UN'DERGROWTH, noun That which grows under trees; shrubs or small trees growing among large ones.

UN'DERHAND, adverb

1. By secret means; in a clandestine manner.

2. By fraud; by fraudulent means.

UN'DERHAND, adjective Secret; clandestine; usually implying meanness or fraud, or both. He obtained the place by underhand practices.

UNDERHAND'ED, adjective Underhand; clandestine. [This is the word in more general use in the United States.

UNDERI'VED, adjective Not derived; not borrowed; not received from a foreign source.

UNDERKEE'PER, noun A subordinate keeper.

UNDERLA'BORER, noun A subordinate workman

UNDERLA'ID, participle passive or adjective [from underlay.] Having something lying or laid beneath; as sand underlaid with clay.

UNDERLA'Y, verb transitive To lay beneath; to support by something laid under.

UNDERLE'AF, noun A sort of apple good for cider.

UNDERLET', verb transitive

1. To let below the value.

2. To let or lease, as a lessee or tenant; to let under a lease.

It is a matter of much importance - that the tenant should have power to underlet his farms.

UNDERLET'TER, noun A tenant who leases.

UNDERLET'TING, participle present tense Letting or leasing under a lease or by a lessee.

UNDERLET'TING, noun The act or practice of letting lands by lessees or tenants. [This is called also subletting.]

UNDERLI'NE, verb transitive

1. To mark with a line below the words; sometimes called scoring.

2. To influence secretly. [Not used.]

UNDERLI'NED, participle passive Marked with a line underneath.

UN'DERLING, noun An inferior person or agent; a mean sorry fellow.

UNDERLI'NING, participle present tense Marking with a line below.

UN'DERLOCK, noun A lock of wool hanging under the belly of a sheep.

UN'DERM'ASTER, noun A master subordinate to the principal master.

UN'DERMEAL, noun A repast before dinner.

UNDERMI'NE, verb transitive

1. To sap; to excavate the earth beneath, for the purpose of suffering to fall, or of blowing up; as, to undermine a wall.

2. To excavate the earth beneath. Rapid streams often undermine their banks and the trees growing upon them.

3. To remove the foundation or support of any thing by clandestine means; as, to undermine reputation; to undermine the constitution of the state.

He should be warned who are like to undermine him.

UNDERMI'NED, participle passive Sapped; having the foundation removed.

UNDERMI'NER, noun

1. One that saps, or excavates the earth beneath any thing.

2. One that clandestinely removes the foundation or support; one that secretly overthrows; as an underminer of the church.

UNDERMI'NING, participle present tense Sapping; digging away the earth beneath; clandestinely removing the supports of.

UN'DERMOST, adjective

1. Lowest in place beneath others.

2. Lowest in state or condition.

The party that is undermost

UN'DERN, noun The third hour of the day, or nine o'clock. [Not in use.]

UNDERNE'ATH, adverb [under and neath. See Nether.]

Beneath; below; in a lower place.

Or sullen Mole that runneth underneath

The slate did not lie flat upon it, but left a free passage underneath

UNDERNE'ATH, preposition Under; beneath.

Underneath this stone doth lie. As much beauty as could die.

UNDEROF'FICER, noun A subordinate officer.

UNDEROG'ATORY, adjective Not derogatory.

UN'DERP'ART, noun A subordinate part.

UNDERPET'TICOAT, noun A petticoat worn under a skirt or another petticoat.

UNDERPIN', verb transitive

1. To lay stones under the sills of a building, on which it is to rest.

2. To support by some solid foundation; or to place something underneath for support.

UNDERPIN'NED, participle passive Supported by stones or a foundation.

UNDERPIN'NING, participle present tense Placing stones under the sills for support.

UNDERPIN'NING, noun

1. The act of laying stones under sills.

2. The stones on which a building immediately rests.

UN'DERPLOT, noun

1. A series of events in a play, proceeding collaterally with the main story, and subservient to it.

2. A clandestine scheme.

UNDERPRA'ISE, verb transitive s as z. To praise below desert.

UNDERPRI'ZE, verb transitive To value at less than the worth; to undervalue.

UNDERPRI'ZED, participle passive Undervalued.

UNDERPRI'ZING, participle present tense Undervaluing.

UNDERPROP' verb transitive To support; to uphold.

And underprop the head that bears the crown.

UNDERPROPORTIONED, adjective Having too little proportion.

Scanty and underproportioned returns of civility.

UNDERPULL'ER, noun An inferior puller. [Not in use.]

UNDERRA'TE, verb transitive To rate too low; to rate below the value; to undervalue.

UN'DERRATE, noun A price less than the worth; as, to sell a thing at an underrate

UNDERRUN', verb transitive To pass under in a boat.

To underrun a tackle, to separate its parts and put them in order.

UNDERSAT'URATED, adjective Not fully saturated; a chimical term.

UNDERSA'Y, verb transitive To say by way of derogation or contradiction. [Not in use.]

UNDERSEC'RETARY, noun A secretary subordinate to the principal secretary.

UNDERSELL', verb transitive To sell the same articles at a lower price than another.

UNDERSELL'ING, participle present tense Selling at a lower price.

UNDERSERV'ANT, noun An inferior servant.

UNDERSET', verb transitive To prop; to support.

UN'DERSET, noun A current of water below the surface.

UNDERSET'TER, noun A prop; a pedestal; a support. 1 Kings 7:30.

UNDERSET'TING, participle present tense Propping; supporting.

UNDERSET'TING, noun The lower part; the pedestal.

UNDER-SHER'IFF, noun A sheriff's deputy.

UNDERSHER'IFRY, noun The office of an under-sheriff. [Not in use.]

UN'DERSHOT, adjective Moved by water passing under the wheel; opposed to overshot; as an undershot mill or mill-wheel.

UN'DERSHRUB, noun A low shrub, permanent and woody at the base, but the yearly branches decaying.

UN'DERSOIL, noun Soil beneath the surface; subsoil.

UN'DERSONG, noun Chorus; burden of a song.

Menalcas shall sustain his undersong

UNDERSTAND', verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive understood. [under and stand. The sense is to support or hold in the mind.]

1. To have just and adequate ideas of; to comprehend; to know; as, to understand a problem in Euclid; to understand a proposition or a declaration.

2. To have the same ideas as the person who speaks, or the ideas which a person intends to communicate. I understood the preacher; the court perfectly understand the advocate or his argument.

3. To receive or have the ideas expressed or intended to be conveyed in a writing or book; to know the meaning. It is important that we should understand the sacred oracles.

4. To know the meaning or signs, or of anything intended to convey ideas; as, to understand a nod, a wink, or a motion.

5. To suppose to mean.

The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.

6. To know by experience.

7. To know by instinct.

-Amorous intent, well understood.

8. To interpret, at least mentally.

9. To know another's meaning.

10. To hold in opinion with conviction.

11. To mean without expressing.

War then, war, open or understood must be resolv'd.

12. To know what is not expressed.

I bring them to receive from thee their names, and pay thee fealty with low subjection; understand the same of fish.

13. To learn; to be informed. I understand that congress have passed the bill.

UNDERSTAND', verb intransitive

1. To have the use of the intellectual faculties; to be an intelligent and conscious being.

All my soul be imparadis'd in you, in whom alone I understand and grow, and see.

2. To be informed by another; to learn.

I understood of the evil that Eliashib did. Nehemiah 13:1.

UNDERSTAND'ABLE, adjective That can be understood. [Not much used.]

UNDERSTAND'ER, noun One who understands or knows by experience. [Little used.]

UNDERSTAND'ING, participle present tense

1. Comprehending; apprehending the ideas or sense of another, or of a writing; learning or being informed.

2. adjective Knowing; skillful. He is an understanding man.

UNDERSTAND'ING, noun

1. The faculty of the human mind by which it apprehends the real state of things presented to it, or by which it receives or comprehends the ideas which others express and intend to communicate. The understanding is called also the intellectual faculty. It is the faculty by means of which we obtain a great part of our knowledge. Luke 24:45. Ephesians 1:18.

By understanding I mean that faculty whereby we are enabled to apprehend the objects of knowledge, generals or particulars, absent or present, and to judge of their truth or falsehood, good or evil.

There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding Job 32:8.

2. Knowledge; exact comprehension.

Right understanding consists in the perception of the visible or probably agreement or disagreement of ideas.

3. Intelligence between two or more persons; agreement of minds; union of sentiments. There is a good understanding between the minister and his people.

UNDERSTAND'INGLY, adverb Intelligibly; with full knowledge or comprehension of a question or subject; as, to vote upon a question understandingly; to act or judge understandingly

The gospel may be neglected, but it cannot be understandingly disbelieved.

UNDERSTOOD', preterit tense and participle passive of understand.

UN'DERSTRAPPER, noun A petty fellow; an inferior agent.

UNDERSTRA'TUM, noun Subsoil; the bed or layer of earth on which the old or soil rests.

UNDERSTRO'KE, verb transitive To underline.

UNDERTA'KABLE, adjective That may be undertaken. [Not in use.]

UNDERTA'KE, verb transitive preterit tense undertook; participle passive undertaken. [under and take.]

1. To engage in; to enter upon; to take in hand; to begin to perform. When I undertook this work, I had a very inadequate knowledge of the extent of my labors.

2. To covenant or contract to perform or execute. A man undertakes to erect a house, or to make a mile of canal, when he enters into stipulations for that purpose.

3. To attempt; as when a man undertakes what he cannot perform.

4. To assume a character. [Not in use.]

5. To engage with; to attack.

Your lordship should not undertake every companion you offend. [Not in use.]

6. To have the charge of.

- Who undertakes you to your end. [Not in use.]

UNDERTA'KE, verb intransitive

1. To take upon or assume any business or province.

O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. Isaiah 38:14.

2. To venture; to hazard. They dare not undertake

3. To promise; to be bound.

I dare undertake they will not lose their labor.

To undertake for, to be bound; to become surety for.

UNDERTA'KEN, participle passive of undertake. The work was undertaken at his own expense.

UNDERTA'KER, noun

1. One who undertakes; one who engages in any project or business.

2. One who stipulates or covenants to perform any work for another.

3. One who manages funerals.

UNDERTA'KING, participle present tense Engaging in; taking in hand; beginning to perform; stipulating to execute.

UNDERTA'KING, noun Any business, work or project which a person engages in, or attempts to perform; an enterprise. The canal, or the making of the canal, from the Hudson to lake Erie, a distance of almost four hundred miles, was the greatest undertaking of the kind in modern times. The attempt to find a navigable passage to the Pacific round North America, is a hazardous undertaking and probably useless to navigation.

UNDERTEN'ANT, noun The tenant of a tenant; one who holds lands or tenements of a tenant.

UN'DERTIME, noun Undern-tide; the time after dinner, or in the evening. [Not in use.]

UNDERTOOK', pret of undertake.

UNDERTREASURER, noun undertrezh'urer. A subordinate treasurer.

UNDERVALUA'TION, noun The act of valuing below the real worth; rate not equal to the worth.

UNDERVAL'UE, verb transitive

1. To value, rate or estimate below the real worth.

2. To esteem lightly; to treat as of little worth.

In comparison of the discharge of my duties, I undervalued all designs of authority.

3. To despise; to hold in mean estimation.

I write not this with the least intention to undervalue the other parts of poetry.

UNDERVAL'UE, noun Low rate or price; a price less than the real worth.

UNDERVAL'UED, participle passive Estimated at less than the real worth; slighted; despised.

UNDERVAL'UER, noun One who esteems lightly.

UNDERVAL'UING, participle present tense Estimating at less than the real worth; slighting; despising.

UNDERWENT', preterit tense of undergo. He underwent severe trials.

UN'DERWOOD, noun Small trees that grow among large trees.

UN'DERWORK, noun Subordinate work; petty affairs.

UNDERWORK', verb transitive

1. To destroy by clandestine measures.

2. To work or labor upon less than is sufficient or proper.

3. To work at a less price than others in the like employment; as, one mason may underwork another; a shoemaker cannot underwork a joiner.

UN'DERWORKER, noun One who underworks; or a subordinate workman.

UNDERWORK'ING, participle present tense Destroying clandestinely; working at a less price than others in the like employment.

UNDERWORKMAN, noun A subordinate workman.

UNDERWRI'TE, verb transitive [See Write.]

1. To write under something else.

The change I have made, I have here underwritten.

2. To subscribe. We whose names are underwritten, agree to pay the sums expressed against your respective names.

3. To subscribe one's name for insurance; to set one's name to a policy of insurance, for the purpose of becoming answerable for loss or damage, for a certain premium per cent. Individuals underwrite policies of insurance, as well as companies.

The broker who procures insurance, ought not, by underwriting the policy, to deprive the parties of his unbiased testimony.

UNDERWRI'TE, verb intransitive To practice insuring.

UN'DERWRITER, noun One who insures; an insurer; so called because he underwrites his name to the conditions of the policy.

UNDERWRI'TING, participle present tense

1. Writing under something.

2. Subscribing a policy; insuring.

UNDERWRI'TING, noun The act or practice of insuring ships, goods, houses, etc.

UNDERWRIT'TEN, participle passive Written under; subscribed.