undercurrent

A current of water which flows under the surface, and often in a different direction from surface currents.

Noun

  1. A current of water which flows under the surface, and often in a different direction from surface currents.
    • For that an undercurrent (which ſome have beleived,) in the ſtraights-mouth, will not ſolve this difficulty, unleſs occaſioned by a vaſt Gulf that muſt be placed ſomewhere in the Atlantic near the Mouth of the ſtraight,...
    • [W]e have a surface current of saltish water from the poles towards the equator, and an undercurrent of water, saltier and heavier, from the equator to the poles. This undercurrent supplies in a great measure the salt...
  2. A tendency of feeling or opinion that is concealed rather than exposed.
    • The meeting was pervaded with an undercurrent of dread, as the managers tried not to admit that firings were looming.
    • All the while there was a busy undercurrent in her, like the thought of a man who keeps up a dialogue while he is considering how he can slip away. - 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXVI, in...
    • Voltaire showed little respect for any conventionality which did not command his acquiescence; yet it may be doubted whether an undercurrent of affectation does not more or less mar the effect of everything he has...

    Synonyms: subcurrent subtext

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dʰí Proto-Indo-European *-ér Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dʰér Proto-Germanic *under Proto-West Germanic *undar Old English under- Middle English under- English under- Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- Proto-Indo-European *-éti Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥séti Proto-Italic *korzō Latin currere Old French corre Old French curantbor. Middle English curraunt English current English undercurrent From under- + current.

Forms

undercurrents

Synonyms

rip current undertow

Related

undertow

Verb

  1. To flow under some surface.
    • The latter are stoically steady, impervious to the nervousness that still continues to undercurrent the Stock Exchange generally, despite an all-round rally. - 1905, The Electrical Review, volume 56, London: H....
    • Her lips hardly moving, every feature steady, she undercurrented my narrative with ejaculations in French, Russian, Italian. - 1927, The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume...
    • The emotions undercurrenting the command left her with no doubt that he planned to do as he said. - 1996, Jane Lindskold, Smoke and Mirrors, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN:

Forms

undercurrents undercurrenting undercurrented