UNDERLYING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Underlying

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/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..

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Etymology of 'Underlying'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Underlying" Quotes from Famous Books

... Sabatini is concerned to develop one of the underlying arguments of his story—namely, that it was King James himself who had ultimately engineered the death of Sir Thomas Overbury. It is an argument which I would not attempt to refute. I do not think that Mr Sabatini's acumen has failed him in the least. But the point for me ...

— She Stands Accused • Victor MacClure

... unusual to find the stern Justiciar, avenger of blood and redresser of wrong, the reconstructer of a distracted country, capable not only of the broad fun of the rustic ballad-maker, but of so tolerant and humorous a view of the humble commons, the underlying masses upon which society is built. For the first aspect of affairs in Scotland could not be a cheerful one: although it was rather with the nobles and gentlemen, the great proprietors of the country, who had to be summoned to exhibit their charters and prove their titles, partly no doubt ...

— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant

... 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 the ...

— When the Sleeper Wakes • Herbert George Wells

... here he is unique—the pleasure he must have had in painting them. All seem to have been play; he enjoyed the toil exactly as a child enjoys the labour of building a house with toy bricks. Nor, one feels, could he be depressed. Even in his Crucifixions there is a certain underlying happiness, due to his knowledge that the Crucified was to rise again and ascend to Heaven and enjoy eternal felicity. Knowing this (as he did know it) how could he be wholly cast down? You see it again ...

— A Wanderer in Florence • E. V. Lucas

... lower Virginia railroads there last winter; run usually with about a thousand men. I cannot tell why I choose the half-forgotten story of this Wolfe more than that of myriads of these furnace-hands. Perhaps because there is a secret, underlying sympathy between that story and this day with its impure fog and thwarted sunshine,—or perhaps simply for the reason that this house is the one where the Wolfes lived. There were the father and son,—both hands, as I said, in one of Kirby & John's mills for making railroad-iron,—and ...

— Life in the Iron-Mills • Rebecca Harding Davis

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