undergird en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Indo-European *-tér Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér Proto-Indo-European *h₂én Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *-dʰi ? 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- English gird English undergird From under- + gird.
Meanings
- To strengthen, secure, or reinforce by passing a rope, cable, or chain around the underside of an object.
-
(figuratively) To give fundamental support; provide with a sound or secure basis; provide supportive evidence for.
For fiction, documentary, verse, and essay, she undergirds entertaining images and stories with profound themes of ecological responsibility and challenge to the suppression of human rights.
2015, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Barbara Kingsolver: A Literary Companion, McFarland, →ISBN, page 3:“I’m not being cynical about Tim Scott individually. I am maybe suggesting that the rhetoric of ‘can’t we all get along?’ – and those quotes you made about, you know, from my speech in 2004 about there’s a ‘United States of America’ – that has to be undergirded with an honest accounting of our past and our present,” Obama told Axelrod, his former senior adviser, adding that he hadn’t listened the South Carolina Republican’s 2024 campaign speeches.
2023 June 15, Chandelis Duster, “There has to be ‘honest accounting’ of US past and present within Republican Party, Obama says”, in CNN, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2023:
- To lend moral support to.
- To secure below or underneath.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| undergirds | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| undergirt | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| undergirt | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| undergirding | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| undergirded | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| undergirded | Tense=Past | lexicographic |
Antonyms
Synonyms
Translations (8)
no oppbacke (lend moral support to) · de unterfüttern (lend moral support to) · no støtte opp under (secure below, underneath) · cs podpořit (provide supportive evidence for) · cs podpořit (lend moral support to) · no understøtte (provide supportive evidence for) · cs podporovat (provide supportive evidence for) · no backe opp (lend moral support to)