underground
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌʌndəˈɡɹaʊnd/
note: for the noun
ipa: /ˈʌndəɡɹaʊnd/
ipa: /ˌʌndɚˈɡɹaʊnd/
note: for the noun
ipa: /ˈʌndɚɡɹaʊnd/
rhymes: -aʊnd
Forms: form: more underground
form: most underground
form: under ground
Etymology: From Middle English undergrounde (adverb), equivalent to under + ground or under- + ground. Compare Dutch ondergrond, ondergronds, German Untergrund, Danish undergrunds.
Senses: examples: text: There is an underground tunnel that takes you across the river.
text: One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
ref: 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
synonyms: subterranean
hypogean
glosses: Below the ground; below the surface of the Earth.
examples: text: These criminals operate through an underground network.
synonyms: word: covered
word: concealed
word: dark
word: dern
word: hidden
word: invisible
word: latent
word: private
word: obfuscated
word: obfuscatory
word: obscure
word: obscured
word: occluded
word: occulted
word: recondite
word: unapparent
word: secluded
word: secret
word: secreted
word: silent
word: snug
word: tect
word: underground
word: undisclosed
word: veiled
word: abstruse
word: behind the scenes
word: catlike
word: stealth
word: clandestine
word: cloak-and-dagger
word: concealed
word: confidential
word: covert
word: deep-laid
word: dern
word: disguised
word: furtive
word: huggermugger
word: hush-hush
word: inconspicuous
word: incognito
word: low profile
word: lurksome
word: lurky
word: mousy
word: obfuscated
word: off-the-books
word: on the down-low
word: on the sly
word: secret
word: secretive
word: slinky
word: sly
word: sneaky
word: stealthy
word: sub rosa
word: surreptitious
word: under-the-table
word: under the radar
word: under wraps
word: undercover
word: underground
word: unperceived
glosses: Hidden, furtive, secretive.
examples: text: underground music
text: ‘[…]he wrote to me last week telling me about an incredible bitch of a row blazing there on account of someone having been and gone and produced an unofficial magazine called Raddled, full of obscene libellous Oz-like filth. And what I though, what Sammy and I thought, was—why not?’ ‘Why not what?’ said Tom. ‘Why not do the same thing here?’ ‘You mean an underground magazine?’ ‘Yup.’
ref: 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 27:
text: "In many ways, it showed there was no longer an underground, as such. This proved that there was no longer one society with everyone agreeing how to live . . . The underground had officially come above ground, and consequently no longer existed."
ref: 2010 March 20, James Campbell, “Barry Miles: 'I think of the 60s as a supermarket of ideas. We were looking for new ways to live'”, in The Guardian:
topics: art
arts
synonyms: unconventional
alternative
antonyms: mainstream
glosses: Outside the mainstream, especially unofficial and hidden from the authorities.
raw_tags: of music
Derived terms: deep underground military base
underground handball
underground handpass
underground mutton
underground people
Underground Railroad
underground railway
Weather Underground