Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Situated, occurring, or operating below the surface of the earth.
- adjective Hidden or concealed; clandestine.
- adjective Of or relating to an organization involved in secret or illegal activity.
- adjective Of or relating to an avant-garde movement or its films, publications, and art, usually privately produced and of special appeal and often concerned with social or artistic experiment.
- noun A clandestine, often nationalist, organization fostering or planning hostile activities against, or the overthrow of, a government in power, such as an occupying military government.
- noun Chiefly British A subway system.
- noun An avant-garde movement or publication.
- adverb Below the surface of the earth.
- adverb In secret; stealthily.
- transitive verb To situate under the ground.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Beneath the surface of the earth: as, to sink underground.
- noun An underground passage.
- noun A contraction of underground railway.
- To place or lay underground, as an electric wire.
- Being below the surface of the ground: as, an underground story or apartment.
- noun That which is beneath the surface of the ground.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Being below the surface of the ground.
- adjective colloq. Done or occurring out of sight; secret.
- adjective See under
Railroad . - noun The place or space beneath the surface of the ground; subterranean space.
- noun chiefly British a subway or subway system, especially in the United Kingdom.
- noun a secret organization opposed to the prevailing government.
- noun a group or movement holding unorthodox views in an environment where conventional ideas dominate, as in artistic circles.
- adverb Beneath the surface of the earth.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective not comparable Below the ground; below the surface of the Earth.
- adjective Hidden, furtive, secretive.
- adjective Of music, art, etc, outside the mainstream.
- adverb Below the ground.
- adverb Secretly.
- noun chiefly UK An
underground railway . - noun with "the" A movement or organisation of people who resist political convention.
- noun with "the" A movement or organisation of people who resist artistic convention.
- verb To route electricity distribution cables underground
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
- adverb in or into hiding or secret operation
- adverb beneath the surface of the earth
- adjective under the level of the ground
- noun an electric railway operating below the surface of the ground (usually in a city)
- noun a secret group organized to overthrow a government or occupation force
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term underground was used as symbolical of the secret manner in which our friends had to work in order to help us.
Sunshine and Shadow of Slave Life. Reminiscences As Told by Isaac D. Williams to "Tege" 1885
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His 1957 essay “Underground films: a bit of male truth” coined the term underground film.
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His 1957 essay “Underground films: a bit of male truth” coined the term underground film.
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And about the underground religion, my understanding is that, well, those people who were going what we call underground or having covered religious activities because of the fear of being some negative effects on them -- I don't quite understand why those people should do this kind of thing.
Remarks By President And First Lady At Shanghai Library ITY National Archives 1998
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I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the underground railroad, but which, I think, by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the upperground railroad.
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, 1845
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I hate how people have been going again underground artists just because of the lyrics.
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NEW YORK — Author James Purdy, a shocking realist and surprising romantic who in underground classics such as “Cabot Wright Begins” and “Eustace Chisholm and the Works” inspired censorious outrage and lasting admiration, has died.
norbert blei | james purdy 1914-2009 « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2009
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Prices are high — about $20 for a lunch with fish from the fixed menu — largely, the owner says, because she can't find ingredients anywhere except in underground markets, where prices are steep.
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I speak with several years experience actually working in underground mines.
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In the last six years, I have witnessed negotiations for the sale of slaves on four continents, in underground brothels, in front line war zones, on suburban streets.
vendingmachine commented on the word underground
Fill in the blanks using the same three letters at the end as at the beginning in the same order to find a place where water flows free:
_ _ _ ERGRO _ _ _
June 23, 2015