UNDERLYING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Underlying

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ˌəndərlˈaɪɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Underlie v. t. (past underlay; past part. underlain; pres. part. underlying)

To lie under; to rest beneath; to be situated under; as, a stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.

To be at the basis of; to form the foundation of; to support; as, a doctrine underlying a theory.

To be subject or amenable to. (R.) "The knight of Ivanhoe... underlies the challenge of Brian der Bois Guilbert."

Underlie v. i. (past underlay; past part. underlain; pres. part. underlying) To lie below or under.

adjective

underlying adj.

Lying under or beneath; as, the underlying strata of a locality.

Hence: Fundamental; basic; as, underlying principles; underlying causes.

Implicit; not immediately obvious; requiring careful scrutiny to discover; as, the underlying sarcasm in her seemingly innocuous remark..

See images of 'Underlying'

Etymology of 'Underlying'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Underlying" Quotes from Famous Books

... seems to have locked itself into its study and rebelled with unflinching determination—on paper. The urgent necessity of either capturing or depriving the party councils of power is a common suggestion underlying all the thoughtful work of the early twentieth century, both in America and England. In most of these things America was a little earlier than England, though both countries drove ...

— When the Sleeper Wakes • Herbert George Wells

... save the merest curiosity could he have in the matter? And yet he was by no means the sort of man to be merely curious. The very strangeness of his proposition half-convinced him that there must be some other very strong reason underlying those which he had given. Again, he was to be perfectly trusted, so no harm could be done trying to discover if this was so, since if he could help he would do so loyally. So ...

— The Mummy and Miss Nitocris - A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension • George Griffith

... Pascal has said: "On ne voit rien de juste ou d'injuste qui ne change de qualite en changeant de climat" (the reading presque rien was the precaution of an editor). The same underlying scepticism is found not only in philosophers of the Titanic sort, to whom remorse is a prejudice of education, and the moral virtues are "the political offspring which flattery begat upon pride," ...

— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... of Boers was seen in the direction of Carolina, and it was supposed that Chris. Botha's force was opposed to the column. The Manchester Regiment led the advance, supported by the Devon Regiment. The former, on crossing a nek to a low underlying hill, came under a heavy rifle fire from the Boers below and across the valley, and lost two killed and nine wounded. The force returned ...

— The Record of a Regiment of the Line • M. Jacson

... sentences Mrs. Royall spoke of the Camp Fire symbolism—of fire as the living, renewing, all-pervading element—"Our brother the fire, bright and pleasant, and very mighty and strong," as being the underlying spirit—the heart of this new order of the girls of America, as the hearth-fire is the heart of the home. She spoke of the brown chevron with the crossed sticks, the symbol of the Wood Gatherer, the blue and orange symbol of the Fire Maker, and the complete insignia combining both ...

— The Torch Bearer - A Camp Fire Girls' Story • I. T. Thurston

More quotes...