Underset
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 undercurrent (of water)
- 1 To set under or beneath. transitive
"How it was shaped up with proper foreway and under-set for dished wheels, or how iron "clouts" (with "clout-nails") were carefully fitted into it to take the wear — is all but gone from my memory, as indeed it was hardly worth storing [...]"
- 2 To prop or support.
"being a company at that time , and well underset with rich men , and good order"
Example
More examples"How it was shaped up with proper foreway and under-set for dished wheels, or how iron "clouts" (with "clout-nails") were carefully fitted into it to take the wear — is all but gone from my memory, as indeed it was hardly worth storing [...]"
Etymology
From Middle English undersetten, from Old English undersettan (“to put, place, or set under, put in the place of another, substitute, falsify, forge, counterfeit, place as a pledge, hypothecate, add, annex, subjoin, make subject, submit, set beneath, esteem less”), equivalent to under- + set. Cognate with Dutch ondersetten (“to put beneath”), German untersetzen (“to put beneath, pin”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.