Undersay

//ʌndə(ɹ)ˈseɪ// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To say by way of derogation or contradiction. obsolete

    "They say, they con to heaven the highway; But by my soul I dare undersay, They never set foot on that same troad, But balke their right way, and strayen abroad."

  2. 2
    To understate.

    "My words undersay it, of course; I mean something rarer than critical, something better than ethical, and perhaps I had better retreat upon such a word as spiritual."

Example

More examples

"They say, they con to heaven the highway; But by my soul I dare undersay, They never set foot on that same troad, But balke their right way, and strayen abroad."

Etymology

From under- + say.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.