underscore

A line drawn or printed beneath text; the character _.

Noun

  1. A line drawn or printed beneath text; the character _.
    • He walks into the house and picks up a pen. The thought he has is a brilliant idea. He must write it down. Only two words need to be written. The underscore adds importance. / BOUNTY HUNTER - 2007, Richard D. Ondo,...

    Synonyms: underline low line

  2. A piece of background music.

Origin

From under- + score.

Forms

underscores

Verb

  1. To underline; to mark a line beneath text.
    • By convention, Rubyists usually underscore their method names. - 2011, Matt Aimonetti, MacRuby: The Definitive Guide: Ruby and Cocoa on OS X, page 14:
  2. To emphasize or draw attention to.
    • I wish to underscore the importance of proper formatting.
    • The tale thus underscores in expressive form the semiparadoxical fact that traders can lie by telling the truth. - 1986, Richard Bauman, Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative:
    • Not trusting filmgoers to catch the drift, Ms. Coppola underscores the women’s attempts to gussy up with snippets of arch dialogue. - 2017 June 30, Ruth La Ferla, “In ‘The Beguiled,’ Pretty Confections Whipped Up to...

Forms

underscores underscoring underscored

Related

underbar undertie ampersand asterisk and asterism at sign backslash bullet dagger degree symbol number sign prime tilde vertical bar pipe