ˈunderworld
[under-1 5 b, c. Cf. Du. onderwereld, G. unterwelt, Da. underverden.]
1. The sublunary or terrestrial world.
| 1609 Daniel Civ. Wars viii. xxx, The glory of that Mightinesse..That ouer-spreds..This vnder-world. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Bonduca iii. ii, Loud Fame calls ye, Pitch'd on the topless Apenine, and blows To all the underworld. 1700 Rowe Amb. Step-Mother i. i, Thou, like the God thou serv'st, shall shine aloft, And with thy influence rule the under world. a 1719 Addison tr. Virgil's Fourth Georgic Wks. 1721 I. 19 When th' under-world is seiz'd with cold and night. 1822 Shelley Chas. 1st ii. 140 For a king bears the office of a God To all the under world. |
| fig. 1694 Atterbury Serm. (1726) I. 173 Their Way was..to look down with Pity and Contempt upon a poor deluded Under-World. 1795 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Liberty's last Squeak iii. Wks. 1812 III. 425 Our Lords on high, Who call the under-world of man, An assish, mulish, packhorse clan. |
2. a. The abode of the departed, imagined as being under the earth; the nether world.
| 1608 Day Hum. out of Br. i. i, Since proud Anthonio..Is in his iourney towards th' vnderworld. 1713 C'tess of Winchilsea Misc. Poems 18 When to the Under-world despis'd he goes, A pamper'd carcase on the Worms bestows. 1858 Birch Anc. Pottery I. 365 Few Argive representations, except that of the Danaids in the under-world,..are given on vases. 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 311 The western Hades, the underworld of night and death. |
b. A region below the surface of the earth; a subterranean or underlying area.
| 1885 Daily News 4 Nov., The extent to which the under⁓world in the Potteries is honeycombed with coal mines. 1886 Winchell Walks Geol. Field 56 Shall we venture among the dangers of the oceanic under-world? |
3. The Antipodes; also, the part of the earth beyond the horizon.
| 1847 Tennyson Princ. iv. 27 Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the under⁓world. 1868 Kingsley Christmas Day 34 New patriarchs of the new-found underworld. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 154 A shining sail came from the under⁓world and swept placidly towards the city. |
4. a. A sphere or region lying or considered to lie below the ordinary one. Hence also (fig.), a lower, or the lowest, stratum of society, etc.
| 1859 A. B. Edwards Hand & Glove vi. 54 Slowly I sank away, lower and lower, into the under-world of darkness and dreams. 1894 Harper's Mag. Mar. 630 The mysterious processes which go on under the influence of the bacteria in this underworld of life. 1899 F. T. Bullen Way Navy 25 The begrimed company of toilers..in the underworld of engines and boilers [in a ship]. 1903 J. London in Ainslie's Mag. Oct. 76/1 And with⁓out a word, when his wanderlust gripped him, he was off and away into that great mysterious underworld he called ‘The Road’. 1913 C. J. Hogarth (title) Dostoyevsky's Letters from the underworld. 1929 Amer. Speech IV. 337 The following word-list..does..record representative words and phrases commonly used by ‘knights of the road’, ‘migratory workers’, and denizens of the so-called ‘underworld’. 1972 F. Fitzgerald Fire in Lake iii. 126 They managed to create an underworld of warlords, secret societies, and bandit groups. |
b. spec. The world of criminals or of organized crime (usu. with the); hence, the inhabitants of this region.
| 1900 McClure's Mag. Aug. 356 (heading) True stories from the Underworld. Ibid., Their life amongst them [sc. the criminal classes] is not to break laws, but to understand as thoroughly as possible the motives and methods of that great part of the community which they describe as ‘The Under-World’. 1903 ‘J. Flynt’ Rise of R. Clowd iv. 136 Susan was the accepted Queen of the local Under World. 1926 Westm. Gaz. 22 Mar., Four of the most dangerous women in London's underworld began long terms of imprisonment during the weekend. 1956 H. Kurnitz Invasion of Privacy xxiii. 146 Remember the code of the underworld and what happens to a squealer. 1977 Time 8 Aug. 16/2 He..was presumably executed by the underworld. 1981 M. Moorcock Byzantium Endures ix. 235 Through an acquaintance in the Podol under⁓world, I had two copies of my passport printed, complete with photographs. |
c. The slang of the criminal underworld. rare.
| 1927 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 132 ‘Taking him for a ride’ is underworld for enticing a person to death. |
5. attrib. and as adj. (esp. in sense 4 b).
| 1929 D. H. Lawrence Pornography & Obscenity 12 Genuine pornography is almost always underworld. 1955 D. W. Maurer in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 12 Perhaps the fact that underworld areas have not been traditionally considered ‘respectable’ for academic research has discouraged some investigators. 1977 Time 4 July 8/2 Widely believed to have underworld as well as high society connections, Riachi was found murdered in his apartment. |
Hence ˈunderˌworldling, a member of an underworld.
| 1928 Tablet 21 Jan. 89/1 One of the points on which Protestant Underworldlings have agreed to blacken the Church. 1962 N. Marsh Hand in Glove v. 157 ‘What can I do for you, Super?’ Moppett asked him with the slight smile of the film underworldling. |
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Add: ˈunderworldly a., belonging to or suggestive of the criminal underworld.
| 1970 Time 16 Nov. 105 Abé sets up a group of underworldly scientists. 1984 Amer. Banker 7 Aug. 23/4 Mr Kleiner suggested that Congress consider a word with less underworldly connotations [than racketeer]. |