submerged, ppl. a.
(səbˈmɜːdʒd)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
a. Sunk under water; covered or overflowed with water, inundated; Bot. growing entirely under water; Naut., operating or being under water (esp. of or relating to a submarine).
| 1799 Kirwan Geol. Ess. 81 The crash and ruin of the submerged continent. 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. 503 One of these submerged forests is occasionally seen on the shore at Gupton Burrows. 1847 Grote Greece ii. xi. III. 197 The history of the vast submerged island of Atlantis. 1857 Henfrey Bot. 61 When they grow wholly under water (submerged leaves). 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 56 Hair-structures..under all states of adaptation, even in submerged species. 1902 H. C. Fyfe et al. Submarine Warfare 258 When running submerged the submarine is lighter than her displacement. 1914 C. W. Domville-Fife Submarines 10 Each of the 1,500 surface warships..carries the means for delivering submarine attacks in its torpedoes and surface and submerged discharging tubes. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble N. Sea Air Station 311 Their maximum submerged speed was, for a limited period, as much as 9 knots. |
b. fig.;
esp. in
submerged tenth, that part of the population which is permanently in poverty and misery. (Contrasted with
upper ten.)
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. v. iv, Happily, in place of the submerged Twenty-six, the Electoral Club is gathering. 1890 Booth In Darkest Eng. i. ii. 22 We have an army of nearly two millions belonging to the submerged classes. Ibid. 23 This Submerged Tenth—is it, then, beyond the reach of the nine-tenths in the midst of whom they live? |
| absol. 1897 Daily News 31 Mar. 8/3 Those who seek to ameliorate the conditions of the submerged. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 18 Feb. 10/1 A..leader of hosts of submerged from the Egypt of slumdom. |
c. Engin. submerged-arc welding, a method of arc welding with a bare metal electrode in which both arc and electrode tip are entirely covered by a loose flux powder fed to the welding area.
| 1945 Industry & Welding Apr. 78 (heading) Submerged arc welding steps up production of invasion boat assemblies. 1952 [see burden n. 6]. 1975 Bram & Downs Manuf. Technol. ii. 57 The submerged-arc welding process must be automatic. |