underneath

The bottom of something.

Adjective

  1. Under, lower.
    • You can have the underneath bunk.
    • The mess in the kitchen was one thing. The way the place smelled was another—some sort of chemistry-lab stink on top, some other smell underneath it. He was afraid the underneath smell might be blood. - 1990, Stephen...

Origin

From Middle English undernethe, undernethen, from Old English underneoþan (“underneath”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *underniþer. Equivalent to under- + neath.

Adverb

  1. Below; in a place beneath.
    • I can't take my sweater off: I amn't wearing anything else on underneath.
    • connected with it underneath, you see a very fine hair-spring. - 1825, Isaac Taylor, Scenes of British Wealth: In Produce, Manufactures, and Commerce, for the Amusement and Instruction of Little Tarry At-home Travellers:
  2. On the underside or lower face.
    • No insects exhibit, like them, what may be termed four net-work eyes. It is very easy to perceive them in looking at the animal from above, and then examining it underneath - 1832, Georges Cuvier, translated by Edward...

Noun

  1. The bottom of something.
    • The underneath of the aircraft was painted blue.
    • Nawnim yelped, heaved away, struck his head on the underneath of the bed, and rolled into view bawling. - 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 64:
    • It was a monolith of a golden color, opening at its base on to a cavern: its underneath was hollowed out by water. - 2002, Mary Ann Caws, Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology, page 229:
  2. A background radio sound track played during a specific announcement or program.
    • The underneath is music from the latest album by …. - 2009, Jay Trachtenberg (radio host), KUT-FM Radio, Austin, Texas, 17 Dec.

Forms

underneaths

Preposition

  1. Under, below, beneath.
    • Underneath the water, all was calm.
    • We flew underneath the bridge.
    • We looked underneath the table.
  2. Under the control or power of.
    • There was little freedom underneath the Nazi jackboot.

Derived

get underneath someone's skin underneath one's breath underneath the hood