ˈunderwood
[under-1 5 d. Cf. MSw. undirvidh.]
1. Small trees or shrubs, coppice-wood or brush-wood, growing beneath higher timber trees.
| a 1325 MS. Rawl. B. 520 fol. 32 b, Þat te heiwes [= high⁓ways]..ben..ilargiste, Þer ase is wode, hegges oþer buskes ore vnderwode. c 1380 Antecrist in Todd Three Treat. Wyclif (1851) 119 His taile is likenyd to a cedre, [þat] wexyng in to heȝþe passiþ oþer vnderwod. 1467–8 Rolls of Parlt. V. 575/2 Every persone or persones, which have bought eny Tymbre, Woode or Underwode. 1480 Cov. Leet Bk. 445 The people..throwen down & beren away the vnderwode of þe seid Priour. 1512 Act 4 Hen. VIII, c. 18 §17 Underwode growyng uppon the seid landes. a 1596 Sir T. More (Malone Soc.) Add. i. 65 Thinke when an oake fals, vnderwood shrinkes downe, And yet may liue, though brusd. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xiii. 100 This underwood serves for supplies to save timber from burning. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 93 In a few years you may observe many fair Trees to steal up amongst the Under⁓wood. 1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 128 The Underwood will be fit to fell in..fifteen Years. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xliv, At a deep recess of the forest,..so overgrown with underwood that they proceeded with difficulty. 1827 O. W. Roberts Voy. Centr. Amer. 64 Our way..was nearly free from underwood or any material impediment. 1882 ‘Ouida’ Maremma I. 46 She made her way through the dense underwood. |
| attrib. 1796 W. H. Marshall Planting II. 51 Its branches..very much resemble those of the Beech:..especially in the shrubby underwood state. |
b. fig.| a 1637 B. Jonson Underwoods To Rdr., I am bold to entitle these lesser poems, of later growth, by this [name] of Underwood, out of the analogie they hold to the Forest in my former booke. 1693 Dryden Juvenal Ded. (1697) p. xxxiv, But these are the Under-Wood of Satire, rather than the Timber-Trees. 1863 Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. ix. 230 It is from among the underwood of these stately productions..that we bring to remembrance gems of practical wisdom. |
2. With
a and
pl. A quantity or stretch, a special kind, of woody undergrowth.
| 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 39 All woodes and vnderwoodes, belonging to your office. 1581–2 Catal. Anc. Deeds (1906) V. 484 Breers, brembles, bushes and underwoodes. 1607 J. Norden Surv. Dial. iii. 140 Therefore must the Surueyor be heedful..to note what trees are among the underwoods. 1646 J. Hall Horæ Vac. 101 Great Oakes breake their own branches and neighbouring underwoods. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4475/3 Posting the..Granadiers among the Thickets of an Underwood. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. iv, Our little habitation was..sheltered with a beautiful underwood behind. 1847 Emerson Poems, Humble-bee 29 Rover of the underwoods. 1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle L. i. 5 Enormous groves of date-palms.., with an underwood of poinsettias. |
| fig. a 1637 B. Jonson (title), Underwoods; consisting of divers poems. [Cf. 1 b.] |
3. The wood underlying a veneer.
| 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 3411, The veneering..will bear an immense amount of heat or damp before it will strip from the underwood. |
Hence
ˈunderˌwooded a.| 1811 [see oak barren s.v. oak 9]. 1861 Rossetti in Ruskin Life (1899) 277 A rich sweet country, beautifully wooded, underwooded, and sloped. |