Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To react with insufficient enthusiasm, force, or emphasis.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To
react inadequately.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word underreact.
Examples
-
Especially since the United States can do little or nothing to affect North Korea's behavior, it would be smarter to "underreact" rather than overreact.
-
Second, I'd like to think, from a former insider's perspective, about Klein's message or at least, my reading of it: there's a design flaw that causes our government to underreact to crises like the Great Recession.
Jared Bernstein: The Self-Imposed Limits of Reaction to a Crisis Jared Bernstein 2011
-
Second, I'd like to think, from a former insider's perspective, about Klein's message or at least, my reading of it: there's a design flaw that causes our government to underreact to crises like the Great Recession.
Jared Bernstein: The Self-Imposed Limits of Reaction to a Crisis Jared Bernstein 2011
-
In responding to the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day, Senator Dianne Feinstein voiced the feelings of many when she said that to prevent such situations, "I'd rather overreact than underreact."
-
And so we might overreact to this spill, but underreact to the problem of oil dependency more generally.
'Every gallon of gasoline contains a tremendous amount of risk we don't account for' 2010
-
Sometimes it was a realm in which a person could feel good about, or underreact to, concepts such as deception, betrayal, dishonesty, manipulation or personal endangerment.
misshaped planet 2010
-
In responding to the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day, Senator Dianne Feinstein voiced the feelings of many when she said that to prevent such situations, "I'd rather overreact than underreact."
Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Tony Blair said: “I... 2010
-
One senior official said the key is to neither overreact nor underreact to the midterms but to accurately pinpoint the areas that were truly problematic for the president and try to act on them.
'Soul-searching' inside the White House Anne E. Kornblut 2010
-
In responding to the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day, Senator Dianne Feinstein voiced the feelings of many when she said that to prevent such situations, "I'd rather overreact than underreact."
-
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano once again faces criticism for seeming to underreact to a possible terrorist attack.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.