Word Meanings - UNDERMINE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. To excavate the earth beneath, or the part of, especially for the purpose of causing to fall or be overthrown; to form a mine under; to sap; as, to undermine a wall. A vast rock undermined from one end to the other, and a highway running through

Additional info about word: UNDERMINE

1. To excavate the earth beneath, or the part of, especially for the purpose of causing to fall or be overthrown; to form a mine under; to sap; as, to undermine a wall. A vast rock undermined from one end to the other, and a highway running through it. Addison. 2. Fig.: To remove the foundation or support of by clandestine means; to ruin in an underhand way; as, to undermine reputation; to undermine the constitution of the state. He should be warned who are like to undermine him. Locke.

Related words: (words related to UNDERMINE)

• UNDERDOER
  One who underdoes; a shirk.
• UNDERBRED
  Not thoroughly bred; ill-bred; as, an underbred fellow. Goldsmith.
• UNDERSECRETARY
  A secretary who is subordinate to the chief secretary; an assistant secretary; as, an undersecretary of the Treasury.
• CAUSEFUL
  Having a cause.
• UNDERPLOT
  1. A series of events in a play, proceeding collaterally with the main story, and subservient to it. Dryden. 2. A clandestine scheme; a trick. Addison.
• UNDERNICENESS
  A want of niceness; indelicacy; impropriety.
• UNDERDOLVEN
  p. p. of Underdelve.
• UNDERSOIL
  The soil beneath the surface; understratum; subsoil.
• EARTHLY-MINDED
  Having a mind devoted to earthly things; worldly-minded; -- opposed to spiritual-minded. -- Earth"ly-mind`ed*ness, n.
• UNDERNIME
  1. To receive; to perceive. He the savor undernom Which that the roses and the lilies cast. Chaucer. 2. To reprove; to reprehend. Piers Plowman.
• UNDERPROP
  To prop from beneath; to put a prop under; to support; to uphold. Underprop the head that bears the crown. Fenton.
• EARTH FLAX
  A variety of asbestus. See Amianthus.
• UNDERCREST
  To support as a crest; to bear. Shak.
• UNDERSAY
  To say by way of derogation or contradiction. Spenser.
• UNDERGROUND INSURANCE
  Wildcat insurance.
• THROUGHOUT
  In every part; as, the cloth was of a piece throughout.
• UNDERTAPSTER
  Assistant to a tapster.
• EARTHDIN
  An earthquake.
• PURPOSELESS
  Having no purpose or result; objectless. Bp. Hall. -- Pur"pose*less*ness, n.
• CAUSATIVE
  1. Effective, as a cause or agent; causing. Causative in nature of a number of effects. Bacon. 2. Expressing a cause or reason; causal; as, the ablative is a causative case.
• RIGHT-RUNNING
  Straight; direct.
• NOTOTHERIUM
  An extinct genus of gigantic herbivorous marsupials, found in the Pliocene formation of Australia.
• ANTICAUSODIC
  See ANTICAUSOTIC
• PLUNDERER
  One who plunders or pillages.
• ISOGEOTHERMAL; ISOGEOTHERMIC
  Pertaining to, having the nature of, or marking, isogeotherms; as, an isogeothermal line or surface; as isogeothermal chart. -- n.
• SMOTHER
  Etym: 1. To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child. 2. To affect as by suffocation; to stife; to deprive of air by a thick
• DUNDERHEAD
  A dunce; a numskull; a blockhead. Beau. & Fl.