▪ I. submarine, a. and n.
(ˈsʌbməriːn, sʌbməˈriːn)
[sub- 1 a.]
A. adj.
1. Existing or lying under the surface of the sea. Also fig.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. iii. 62 A sub-marine Plant. 1670 Boyle Tracts, Submarine Regions i. 3 By the Appellation of Submarine Regions 'tis not to be supposed that the places so called are below the Bottom of the Sea, but only below the surface of it. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 87 This Fucus is found on submarine rocks at very low water. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 24 A vast submarine region, such as the bed of the western Atlantic. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. xii. 395 The islands are situated on moderately deep submarine banks. 1877 Huxley Physiogr. 198 Submarine volcanoes occasionally give rise to new land. 1917 T. S. Eliot Prufrock & Other Observations 35 His laughter was submarine and profound Like the old man of the sea's. 1925 A. Huxley Those Barren Leaves v. i. 348 He found himself adding, with a kind of submarine laughter below the surface of his voice: ‘Do you think you can make an end?’ |
2. Operating or operated, constructed or laid, intended for use under the surface of the sea.
Later examples tend to merge with the recent attrib. use of the n. (sense 3 b below).
submarine boat, a boat so designed that it can be submerged, and propelled when under water, used chiefly for carrying and discharging torpedoes. submarine mine, a charge of explosives, moored at or beneath the surface of the sea, intended by its explosion on impact to put a hostile vessel out of action immediately.
| 1648 Wilkins Math. Magick ii. v. 178 Concerning the possibility of framing an Ark for submarine Navigations. Ibid. 182 These submarine Navigators will want the usuall advantages of winds and tides for motion. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 85 Submarine exploits. 1807 T. Jefferson Let. 16 Aug. in Writings (1853) V. 165, I have ever looked to the submarine boat as most to be depended on for attaching them [sc. torpedoes to the cable of a ship]. 1818 Monthly Mag. Feb. 46/2 His boat at this time he called the submarine boat, or the plunging boat. 1840 Mech. Mag. 19 Sept. 320 Spithead has been..a scene of diversified exertion in submarine work. 1855 Lardner's Mus. Sci. & Art III. 159 It is proposed to connect Orfordness..with the Hague, by seven separate submarine cables. 1860 Prescott Electr. Telegr. 179 The wires of a submarine telegraph. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. ii. 30 Currents, for the most part, and for great distances, are submarine. 1861 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XIV. 193 Applying the magneto-electric current to the ignition of submarine charges. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Wordbk. 664 Submarine Thermometer, an instrument for trying the temperature of the sea at different depths. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Submarine Boat, a vessel constructed to navigate beneath the surface of the water. 1889 [see submersible a.]. 1897 Knowledge 1 Jan. 20/1 All the great naval Powers are busily engaged in bringing submarine warfare to a perfect system of attack. 1900 19th Cent. May 722 Why it [sc. the naval programme] does not contain..any provision for submarine or submersible boats. 1919 Daily Mail Year Bk. 76/2 One and a half year's unrestricted submarine war. 1940 Times 11 June 7/4 Someone has blundered—Dr. Goebbels, or the German submarine command, or both. 1979 O. Sela Petrograd Consignment 17 The chiefs of the [German] civil, military and naval cabinets..had decided to end the blockade by declaring unrestricted submarine warfare. |
B. n.
1. A submarine creature; † a submarine plant, coral, etc.
| 1703 Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1419 A Description of some Coralls, and other curious Submarines. 1756 J. Hill Brit. Herbal 533 Grassy Alga..is the only submarine which has a regular root. 1839 Hood Sub-marine 68 With open'd mouth and open'd eyes, Up rose the Sub-marine. |
2. A submarine mine.
| 1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 28 July 6/2 Suppose you lay down submarines to help the defence; without a flotilla, how are you going to stop the enemy from taking them up or destroying them at night? |
3. a. A submarine boat: see A 2 (now the dominant sense).
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 2 Feb. 7/1 The submarine was no longer there. She was hidden from our fire and from our view. 1900 Daily Mail 4 May 4/3 The submarine has been adopted by the French navy as a means of gaining control of the Channel. |
b. attrib. and Comb. in many obvious uses. Also submarine chaser, a small patrol boat equipped for military operations against submarines; submarine pen: see pen n.1 2 d; submarine scout = blimp 1.
| 1908 C. Field Story of Submarine 183 The rise of the Russian submarine flotilla. 1914 C. W. Domville-Fife Submarines 9 The submarine fleets of England, France, Russia, [etc.]. 1915 W. E. Dommett Aeroplanes & Airships vi. 75 In place of an enemy camp or railway junction, we get the submarine base or dockyard. 1917 Daily Mail 5 Mar. 5/4 Expert officials of the [U.S.] Navy department devised a scheme for placing on board merchant ships..two or three small boats as submarine-chasers. 1917 Jane's All the World's Aircraft 78 c The ‘Blimp’ or Submarine Scout, evolved by the British Naval Air Service. 1931 W. G. Carr By Guess & by God 261 Lieutenant Johnson was ‘submarine-minded’. He loved them. 1941 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. of War 14 May–8 July 193 Fast revenue cutters of the U.S. coastguard service..are now in service with the Royal Navy as submarine chasers. 1942 Sun (Baltimore) 17 Mar. 1/5 That the submarine-killer is not instantly available is due to the same old cause—we did not start early enough. 1954 P. K. Kemp Fleet Air Arm 35 The first of the famous S.S., or Submarine Scout, airships. 1959 Encounter Jan. 13/1 The Polaris submarine-launched missile. 1975 B. Meyrick Behind Light xiv. 190 They had to raise and lower the submarine nets. 1979 J. Sherwood Hour of Hyenas xiv. 163, I know Georgiades' boat..former Nazi navy submarine chaser. |
4. slang. (Prob. transf. from sense 3.) † a. A doughnut. U.S. Obs.
| 1916 Independent 9 Oct. 77 ‘Two submarines and a mug of murk—no cow!’ orders the waiter. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §91/25 Doughnuts,..sinkers, submarines. |
b. A type of sandwich; = hoagie; poor boy (sandwich) s.v. poor a. (n.) 8. Freq. attrib. as submarine roll, submarine sandwich. Cf. sub n. 8 b. Chiefly U.S.
| 1955 Sat. Even. Post 1 Jan. 16/2 The submarine is a noble edifice built of meats, cheeses, fish—preserved and pickled—and fresh vegetables and greens, all stuffed into a whole long loaf of bread and laved generously with oil, herb-flecked vinegar and other delicious lubricants. 1961 Webster, Submarine sandwich. 1967 Amer. Speech XLII. 279 (title) The submarine sandwich: lexical variations in a cultural context. 1973 Submarine roll [see hoagie]. 1973 Kingston (Ontario) Whig-Standard 11 July 7/2 Who are the biggest fans of the Jaycee beer garden where beer and submarine sandwiches are sold? 1979 Tucson (Ariz.) Mag. Sept. 68/2 Real bargains in pizzas, submarines and dinner platters. |
Hence submarine, v. (a) trans., to attack with a submarine; (b) intr., to act or move like a submarine (fig.); submariner (-ˈmærɪnə(r)), a member of the crew of a submarine; ˈsubmarining (also -ˈriːnɪŋ) vbl. n., the use of or activity with submarines; also attrib. and as ppl. a.; submarinism disused = submarining vbl. n. above; submaˈrinist, an advocate of submarine boats.
| 1900 19th Cent. May 722 The confident statements of the French submarinists. 1911 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 170/1 ‘Ought to prove a tidy job for us, though,’ he muttered with some anxiety, ‘s'long as she don't take to submarinin' first.’ 1914 Land & Water 19 Sept. 17* Having been submarined and beached. 1915 Times 1 Feb. 9/3 All is fish which comes into the net of the submariner. 1915 Glasgow Herald 30 Mar. 8 The commander of the U16, which sank the British steamer Dulwich and the French vessels Ville de Lille and Dinorah, discussed ‘submarinism’ from the standpoint of one who had experience. 1915 Spectator 13 Nov. 645/2 America's last word as to submarining in the North Sea. 1917 R. Lord Captain Boyd's Battery, A.E.F. (1919) 24 Submarine,..let's submarine, etc.—to submerge, to make onself scarce in the presence of impending duty. 1918 G. Frankau One of Them xxii. 170 That Hand before whose Thumb the Cave-men bow, Whose oiled Palm guides the submarining mermans. 1927 Westm. Gaz. 23 May 6/2 The war advanced the study of submarinism and aviation. 1946 G. Millar Horned Pigeon viii. 96 A submariner named Mike Caplatt produced an original musical comedy. 1966 M. R. D. Foot SOE in France iv. 62 The most active submarining spell. 1971 Wall St. Jrnl. 12 Mar. 1/4 Occupants [of a crashing car] could ‘submarine’ under an inflating bag and thus not be protected by it. 1972 J. Broome Convoy is to Scatter i. 24 Submarining then was a human rather than a technological way of life, full of individuals who stamped one's memory with their character. 1976 J. Lee Ninth Man i. 5 If they stumbled into trouble on the beach, they could claim they were submariners. 1981 Sunday Times 26 Apr. 3/5 The 10-year-old dummy [in a test of safety belts] ‘submarined’—that is, he slid forward under the belt, which tightened across his stomach and around his neck. |
Add: [B.] [3.] c. submarine charge (Amer. Football), a charge performed by a defensive lineman in which he ducks below the block of an offensive lineman; also ellipt. Now rare.
| 1938 W. G. Killinger in W. L. Hughes Bk. Major Sports iii. 47 After several submarine charges by the defensive guard the offensive linemen are likely to be charging very low. 1952 L. O. Waldorf Game of Football xii. 189 After using the submarine charge a few times the defensive guard may fake a submarine. |
▪ II. submarine, v. (Formerly at submarine n.)
(sʌbməˈriːn)
[f. submarine n.]
1. intr. a. To voyage in or operate a submarine. b. fig. To act or move like a submarine. rare.
| 1911, etc. [implied in submarining vbl. n. below]. 1917 R. Lord Captain Boyd's Battery, A.E.F. (1919) 24 Submarine,..let's submarine, etc.—to submerge, to make oneself scarce in the presence of impending duty. 1990 J. Wambaugh Golden Orange iv. 39 When Winnie's feet touched sand and he turned to thank the surfer, the kid was already submarining through the nearest breaker. |
2. trans. Usu. in pass. a. To attack by submarine. b. To send by submarine. (Both senses rare.)
| 1914 Land & Water 19 Sept. 17/1 Having been submarined and beached. 1918 T. E. Lawrence Let. 15 July (1938) 244 This letter will be submarined. 1939 [see whistling vbl. n. 1 d]. 1948 G. Greene Heart of Matter II. ii. i. 172 There's the Mrs. Rolt who was submarined. |
3. U.S. Sports, esp. Amer. Football. a. intr. To duck or dive so low as to avoid the block of an offensive lineman. b. trans. To collide with (an opposing player) in making this manoeuvre.
| 1961 in Webster. 1966 Rote & Winter Lang. Pro Football 140 Submarine, v. (obs.), to move across the line of scrimmage by crawling. 1972 S. DeLuca Football Playbook v. 123 You might expect a smaller defensive lineman to ‘submarine’ his opponent (lunge lower than the defender). 1978 Washington Post 5 Sept. d3/5 Pardee said Kuziel could hardly be faulted because the man opposite him submarined on the play. Kuziel fell on top of him. 1979 Ibid. 25 Mar. g1/3 (caption) Terry Donnelly of Michigan State writhes in agony after being submarined by Penn player while making layup. 1990 USA Today 24 Oct. 8c/5 Jensen illegally submarined the kickoff wedge. |
4. intr. To slide forward under one's safety belt as a result of the impact of a head-on motor crash.
| 1971 Wall St. Jrnl. 12 Mar. 1/4 Occupants [of a crashing car] could ‘submarine’ under an inflating bag and thus not be protected by it. 1981 Sunday Times 26 Apr. 3/5 The 10-year-old dummy [in a test of safety belts] ‘submarined’—that is he slid forward under the belt, which tightened across his stomach and around his neck. 1987 Punch 25 Feb. 45 In the event of a head-on smash,..the hawsers..pull the steering wheel away from your chest and tension the seat-belts, so that you're pinned to the squab and prevented from ‘submarining’ down into the footwell. |
5. [Fig. use of sense *2 a above.] trans. To put out of action in an underhand or covert way; to sabotage. U.S. slang.
| 1978 L. Pryor Viper vii. 132 You submarined my car... One mechanic putting his hand on a wing and quietly pulling it until it lost its downthrust. 1982 Chicago Sun-Times 3 Sept. 106/2 Players talk, though, even when they aren't out to submarine management, and when they do, they wind up sounding like Doug Plank does after seven seasons of use and abuse. 1990 N.Y. Newsday 16 Oct. 33/3 Charles Hynes, now Brooklyn district attorney, doesn't call Dinkins the way he used to ever since he was submarined by a report by the Dinkins team. |
Hence submaˈrining vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1911 Chamber's Jrnl. Feb. 170/1 ‘Ought to prove a tidy job for us, though,’ he muttered with some anxiety, ‘s'long as she don't take to submarinin' first.’ 1915 Spectator 13 Nov. 645/2 America's last word as to submarining in the North Sea. 1918 G. Frankau One of Them xxii. 170 That Hand before whose Thumb the Cave-men bow, Whose oiled Palm guides the submarining mermans. 1966 M. R. D. Foot SOE in France iv. 62 The most active submarining spell. 1972 Sunday Tel. 30 Apr. 34/2 Sliding forward out of their protective belts in a movement which safety experts call ‘submarining’. 1985 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 21 Sept. 758/1 Anchorage points mounted on the seat..diminish abdominal injuries due to submarining. |