underneath

1. 1
   preposition

   Used before a noun or pronoun to show that something is under, below, or beneath it.

   She found her keys underneath a pile of old mail.

   The canoe slipped underneath the low stone bridge.

   Similarunder, beneath, below

   Oppositeover, above, atop

   Note

   A sentence can open with it to set a scene below a surface: underneath the water, all was calm. What follows is always the thing on top, a noun or a pronoun, as in underneath the bridge or underneath it; leave that out and the word turns into the adverb of place, as in nothing else on underneath.

2. 2
   adverb

   Below, or in a place beneath something.

   The ice looked solid, but dark water was moving underneath.

   I kept my jacket on because I had only a tank top on underneath.

   Similarbeneath, below, under

   Oppositeabove

3. 3
   adverb

   On the underside or lower surface of something.

   The beetle is black above and bright red underneath.

   The table looked new, but it was scratched and stained underneath.

   Similarbelow, beneath

   Oppositeabove

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The bottom or underside of something.

   Rust had eaten through the underneath of the old truck.

   She sealed the underneath of the shelf so it would not warp in the damp.

   Similarunderside, bottom

   Oppositetop

5. 5
   preposition

   Used to show that someone or something is under the control or power of another.

   Few people dared to speak out underneath the general's rule.

   Free speech withered underneath the regime's censors.

   Similarunder, beneath

6. 6
   adjective

   Lower, or lying beneath something else.

   When they stripped the wallpaper, the underneath layer turned out to be pale green.

   Beneath the perfume was an underneath smell of damp and mold.

   Similarunderlying, lower, bottom

   Oppositeupper, top

   Note

   The adjective stands before its noun, as in the underneath bunk, and it can grow out of the adverb in the same breath: in Stephen King's The Moving Finger there is some other smell underneath it, and a moment later the underneath smell. Where it might sound odd in formal writing, lower does the same job.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   Background music or sound played under a particular radio announcement or program.

   The producer chose a slow jazz track as the underneath for the station's holiday message.

   During the weather report, the underneath is a quiet piano loop.

   Note

   Radio people use it for what plays beneath the voice, and listeners mostly hear it when a host credits the music on air: the underneath is music from the latest album by…, as Jay Trachtenberg put it on KUT-FM in Austin in 2009. It usually takes the and is seldom counted.

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