▪ I. underground, adv.
(-ˈgraʊnd, occas. ˈʌndə-)
Also under-ground and under ground.
[under-2.]
1. a. Below the surface of the ground.
| 1571 [see ground n. 8]. 1598 Florio, Sotteraneo, of or pertaining to things vnderground. c 1615 Sylvester Job Triumphant iii. 273 Mines and veinlings (vnder ground) Whence Silver's fetcht. 1684 T. Burnet Theory Earth i. 259 The..passage of the paradisiacal rivers under-ground or under-sea, from one continent into another. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. River, Some Rivers bury themselves under Ground in the middle of their Course. 1780 Coxe Russ. Disc. 68 Their dwellings underground are similar to those of the Kamtchadals. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xlvi, He..wished that lady..underground rather than there. 1878 Huxley Physiography 31 The laws which regulate the flow of water underground. |
| Comb. c 1720 C. Place in Mem. W. Stukeley (Surtees) I. 157 The old Giants are represented to us as underground⁓livers all of them. 1857 Henfrey Bot. §634 They are Truffles, or underground-fruiting Fungi. |
b. Governed by from. (Cf. from prep. 15 a.)
| 1612 Two Noble K. Prol. 18 How will it shake the bones of that good man, And make him cry from under ground. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 820 Tisiphone, let loose from under Ground. 1872 Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 1386 Then sprang the happier day from underground. |
2. fig. a. In secrecy or concealment; in a hidden or obscure manner.
| 1632 Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 104 If he had medled with St. Austin and the Fathers, and not medled so much with these workes underground, he might have knowen the difference betweene the Church of Rome and us. 1679 Animadv. Sp. Five Jesuits 16 Since they may still work under-ground, and not be discovered. 1709 Shaftesbury Charac. (1711) II. 269 Supplanting and Undermining may, in other Cases, be fair War: But in Philosophical Disputes, 'tis not allowable to work underground. 1820 Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 308 [Jeremy Taylor] does not dig his way under⁓ground, but slides upon ice. 1875 J. H. Newman Let. 29 Oct., The pains and achievements of an editor are emphatically underground and out of sight. |
b. Into hiding or surreptitious activity, esp. in phr. to go underground: applied chiefly to political organizations and their representatives which continue to operate in secret (and often subversively) after becoming officially unacceptable.
| 1935 Ann. Reg. 1934 ii. 198 The Socialist leaders..decided that it was best to accept defeat: those leaders who were known made for the frontier, the others ‘went underground’ and began at once the organising of an illegal party. 1949 ‘M. Innes’ Journeying Boy xxiii. 285 There was nothing for it but a quick get-away and a going underground for good. 1960 E. Bowen Time in Rome iv. 118 Like Resistance workers in the occupied countries, long-ago Christians, from time to time, strategically ‘went underground’. 1977 Times 15 June 1/5 The crucial factor was the subsequent move underground by a handful of those people [sc. Soviet sympathizers], and the covers they assumed to mask their new role as agents. |
▪ II. ˈunderground, a. and n.
Also occas. under-ground.
[f. prec.]
A. adj. = subterranean a.
1. a. Found below the surface of the ground.
| 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 745 Vnder-grownd trees, or which haue lien a long time buried there. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 6 In Friesland..there are great numbers of these under-ground Trees found. |
b. Growing, living, or developed underground.
| 1757 Phil. Trans. L. 404 A compressed pod of the..Under⁓ground-Pea. 1807 Southey Lett. (1856) I. 417 Some Jerusalem or under-ground artichokes. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 113 The most injurious of all underground larvæ. Ibid. 279 Tubers, or underground stems. 1875 Bennett & Dyer tr. Sachs' Bot. 673 The buds on underground rhizomes. |
c. Dwelling underground or in the underworld.
| 1833 Keightley Fairy Mythol. I. 314 A treasure which the underground-people must redeem at any price. 1866–7 Baring-Gould Myths Mid. Ages (1872) 216 The underground folk seek union with human beings. |
d. underground mutton, a rabbit; rabbit meat. Austral. slang.
| 1946 A. J. Holt Wheat Farms of Victoria viii. 129 ‘Underground mutton’ (rabbit) is almost always available for those who like it. 1965 E. Lambert Long White Night xv. 138, I thought a feed of underground mutton would go all right for my tea. 1979 D. R. Stuart Crank Back on Roller 151 Maybe a rabbit, though I was never what y' could call over fond of the ole underground mutton meself. |
2. a. Situated below the surface of the ground.
| 1611 Cotgr., Hypogee, a vault, celler, or such like vnder⁓ground roome. 1664 N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. ii. vi. 172 An under-ground Temple consecrated to Melancholy. 1665–6 Phil. Trans. I. 109 The Divine Structure of the under-ground World. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VII. 353 The Mole-Cricket..at night..ventures from its under-ground habitation. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 353 If a projected building is to have cellars, or under-ground kitchens. 1846 A. Marsh Father Darcy II. i. 8 One of those long underground passages, used for communication between the different houses. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 31 After slowly trickling through a long dark underground course. |
b. In fig. context. (Cf. 4.)
| 1675 Owen Indwelling Sin vi. (1732) 51 It will increase..until it..makes it self an underground-passage, by some secret Lust that shall give a full Vent unto it. 1822 De Quincey Confess. 48 The stream of London charity flows in a channel..noiseless and underground. |
c. underground railroad, underground railway, (a) a railway running under the surface of the ground, esp. beneath the streets and buildings of a city; also in other collocations, as underground line, underground service, etc. (now often attrib. uses of the n.); (b) U.S., the secret system by which slaves were enabled to escape to the Free States and Canada; also underground line; also fig.
| (a) 1834–6 P. Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 240/1 The under-ground Railways..in Newcastle, and its immediate vicinity. 1883 [see metropolitan a. 2 b]. 1885 C. E. Pascoe London of To-day xiii. 137 The stuffy underground railway journey to Baker Street. 1926 Times 6 May 3/1 In London most of the tube and underground services were in force or others were expected to be to-day. 1926 Daily Express 11 May 1/3 The Underground trains yesterday showed no difference from any ordinary Monday morning. 1975 J. Symons Three Pipe Problem xviii. 204 He lost his way to the Underground station. 1982 G. Lyall Conduct of Major Maxim vii. 62 With the Under⁓ground map in his diary he worked out a route that involved two changes of train. |
| (b) 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. viii. 43 Till the gal's been carried on the underground line up to Sandusky or so. 1856 ― Dred II. xxx. 318 An indefinite yet very energetic institution, known as the underground railroad. 1868 C. M. Yonge Chaplet of Pearls I. xviii. 251 There was what in later times has been termed an under⁓ground railway amid the persecuted Calvinists. 1875 N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 67 More fugitives than ever came from the slave states, and the underground railroad was in fuller activity than before. 1940 Sun (Baltimore) 14 Oct. 2/3 A so-called ‘underground railway’ delivering prominent scholars and writers from Nazi-dominated parts of Europe. 1979 R. Laidlaw Lion is Rampant xviii. 137, I could probably have got you smuggled to the Border via my ‘Underground Railway’. |
3. a. Carried on, taking place, underground.
| 1709 T. Robinson Nat. Hist. Westmoreld. Pref. A vj, The Inspection of Under-ground Projects of several Kinds. 1795 Earl Dundonald Connex. Agric. w. Chem. 171 The clay..may be wrought by shafting and under-ground mining. 1831 T. Hope Ess. Orig. Man II. 73 The earth-worm,..to whom a body dense and rigid..would only impede his underground progress. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 218 The abandonment of ridges will render underground drainage even more necessary. |
b. Worn while underground.
| 1827 Q. Rev. XXXVI. 89 As soon as the men come to grass they repair to the engine-house, where they generally leave their underground clothes to dry. 1888 F. Hume Mme. Midas i. v, They arrayed themselves in underground garments. |
c. Working, having control, underground.
| 1852 Eng. & Foreign Mining Gloss. (1860) 60 Overman, an underground overlooker. 1871 Daily News 21 Sept., The underlookers, and the underground manager [of the colliery]. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. 348 Reeve, the underground overlooker of the pits. |
d. Adapted for use underground.
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 911/1 Stevens's under⁓ground engine. |
4. fig. a. Hidden, concealed, secret.
| 1677 Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 250 This is their help, that some secret underground hopes which they espy not, do revive, at least sometimes. 1848 Keble Serm. Pref. p. xlv, There may be an unseen, underground unity. 1886 Gurney, etc. Phantasms of Living I. 538 We have already had numerous..instances of what may be called ‘underground telepathy’. |
b. Not open or public; concealed from or avoiding general notice.
| 1820 J. W. Croker Diary 12 Apr. in C. Papers, Brougham..I believe has been for some time in underground communication with Carlton House. 1883 tr. Kravchinsky's Underground Russia 49 The inner life of Underground Russia. |
c. Designating (the activities of) a group, organization, or its representatives, working covertly to subvert the aims of a ruling (often occupying) power. Cf. resistance 1 c.
| 1939 [see resistance 1 c]. 1939 War Illustr. 9 Dec. 392/3 Even in the completely occupied territory there was underground activity. 1944 Times 18 July 2/3 An exhibition of the underground press of Europe. 1950 G. Brenan Face of Spain v. 118 Until recently people suspected of Underground activity had been arrested and court-martialed. 1965 J. A. Michener Source (1966) 784 The night in the Belgian port when another English underground operative had called, ‘One more place in the lorry. Look lively.’ 1974 J. White tr. Poulantzas's Fascism & Dictatorship iv. ii. 186 The KPD's underground apparatus turned out to be non-existent. |
d. Of or pertaining to a subculture which seeks to provide radical alternatives to the socially accepted or established mode; spec. manifested in its literature, music, press, etc.
| 1953 Observer 13 Sept. 9/3 Its detached picture of barren tragic love..in a furtive fantastic ‘underground’ sector of London. 1962 Movie Dec. 4/2 Fuller is not an ‘underground’ director whose films actually do the opposite of what they overtly say. 1969 Oz May 36/1 He talked solidly for nearly forty-five minutes—he'd said it all before.. to all the underground papers in the States. 1970 A. Toffler Future Shock xii. 248 The underground movie..is flourishing even more than the underground press. 1977 New Yorker 9 May 126/3 He is attracted to buying Mainline because of its history as a radical underground weekly. |
e. underground economy, the economic sector of private business deals in which tax liability is not reported; the ‘black’ economy. Cf. black a. 11 c. U.S.
| 1978 Business Week 13 Mar. 74 Neither the government nor labour unions seem to have any control over the underground economy. 1980 Economic Rev. (Fed. Reserve Bank of Atlanta) Jan.–Feb. 8/2 It suggests increasing activity in the ‘underground economy’ (gambling, bartering, and other unreported income). 1982 Christian Sci. Monitor 1 July b–4/1 Local custom means heavy traffic in illegal drugs and prostitution, an underground economy that is left alone as long as there is no trouble. 1983 Chicago Sun-Times 9 Sept. 38/2 The 30 cents a pound is essentially tax-free, part of the underground (or curbside) economy. |
B. n.
1. a. The region below the earth; the lower regions or underworld.
| 1590 T. Watson Poems (Arb.) 159 That..they may lament with guosts of vnder-ground. 1592 Kyd Sp. Trag. i. vi. 1 Come we for this from depth of vnder ground? a 1618 Sylvester Job Triumph. iii. 278 Beyond the bounds of Darkness Man hath pry'd And th' excellence of underground descry'd. 1887 Scribner's Mag. II. 449 The open spaces of the underground may..be divided into several distinct classes. |
b. An underground space or passage.
| 1594 Kyd Cornelia ii. i. 377 Those seas..Returne to springs by vnder-grounds. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xv. 176 This Jupiter, and I, And Pluto, God of under-grounds. 1884 Daily News 24 Sept. 3/2 The financial success..had not been such as to encourage costly exploration in unknown under⁓grounds. |
2. a. Underlying ground or soil; subsoil.
So Du. ondergrond, G. untergrund.
| 1812 Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 231 A dry, free soil, on a sound under-ground or bottom. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 10 The underground of houses in certain localities being infiltrated with the virus [of rheumatic fever]. |
b. Ground lying at a lower level or below trees.
| 1842 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 7 Rushes and..marsh thistles filled up the under ground. 1878 Mrs. Oliphant Primrose P. II. 124 The mossy underground beneath the firs. |
3. An underground railway, esp. the one in London. Usu. with capital initial.
| 1866 J. R. Planché Orpheus in Haymarket iii. 32 For Tartarus I happened to be bound, And was just starting by the Underground. 1875 L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 123 Set off from Victoria Station by the Underground for Shepherd's Bush. 1887 Doyle Study in Scarlet (1892) 28 A third class carriage on the Underground. |
4. fig. a. A group or movement organized secretly to work against an existing regime, often by violent means; spec. an ‘underground’ resistance movement. Usu. with the.
| 1946 Koestler Thieves in Night 277 The Hebrew underground began as a purely political movement. 1946 Auden Nones (1952) 61 By night our student Underground At cocktail parties whisper round From ear to ear. 1958 L. Uris Exodus i. xii. 72 The Danes, by the middle of 1941, had established a small but determined little underground. 1966 A. Sachs Jail Diary iii. 30 With her husband Dennis on trial for his life for supporting the underground, she was hoping for some peace. 1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 96 Captain must allow for the real chance she's a British spy, or member of the Dutch underground. |
b. Any unofficial group or movement which seeks to provide alternatives to the forms of expression and action sanctioned by the society in which it exists.
| 1959 [see trans-world a.]. 1969 Oz Apr. 27/2 The underground's a great crowd really. We enjoy them as people..just being what they are. 1970 Guardian 28 Feb. 9/2 We are going to try..to establish a definition of the underground... The word applies to a life-style, to a group of people who live..outside the constraints of ordinary society..and who largely..have come to the realisation of this new life-style through the use of cannabis and LSD. 1974 M. C. Gerald Pharmacol. i. 13 On the one hand, he has been enticed by ‘notes from the underground’, exalting the wonders of ‘acid’;..simultaneously, he has often been subjected to..the lies and half-truths of the well-meaning establishment. |
Hence ˈunderˌgrounder, -ˌgroundling.
| 1868 Once a Week 18 Jan. 66/1 The Metropolitan railway (the undergroundlings). 1882 Belgravia July 67 That the aëronauts had the advantage of the undergrounders. 1954 L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel xv. 94 The hole becomes..a wide Doorway; the undergrounders burst and spout. 1974 K. Millett Flying iv. 380 This patron saint of all undergrounders. |
▪ III. ˈunderground, v.
[f. the adv.]
trans. To lay (electricity or telephone cables) below ground level. So ˈunderˌgrounding vbl. n.
| 1889 in Cent. Dict. 1961 Times Rev. Industry Jan. 40/1 In..transmitting power, there are only two alternatives—the overhead and underground..and it's 16 times as dear to run [cables] underground... I think undergrounding is out of the question. 1964 Times 2 Sept. 11/6 We were recently obliged to underground three and a half miles of the Thorpe Marsh-Stalybridge line. 1971 P. Gresswell Environment 71 In the case of a line of pylons..he [sc. the citizen] needs to be told not simply how much undergrounding would cost..but how this relates to the total capital expenditure. 1977 New Scientist 27 Jan. 188/2 The CEGB spent {pstlg}220,000 undergrounding 2 km..cable..to preserve the view of Oxford as seen from Elsfield. |