Dictionary

underlie en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˌʌn.dɚˈlaɪ/ (US)
• /ˌan.dəˈlɑɪ/ (Australia)
• /ˌʌn.dəˈlaɪ/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English underlien, underliggen, from Old English underliċġan (“to underlie, to be subject to, give way to”), equivalent to under- + lie. Cognate with Dutch onderliggen (“to lie below, lie on the bottom of”), German unterliegen (“to lie under, be subject to, succumb”).

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To lie in a position directly beneath something.
2. (transitive) To lie under or beneath.
   • A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.
3. (transitive) To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.
   • […] she was carved into the bole of a red cedar tree. Sun and storm had bleached the wood, moss here and there softened the crudeness of the modelling; sincerity underlay every stroke. 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 6, in Klee Wyck:
   • a doctrine underlying a theory
   • Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes. 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
4. (transitive) To be subject to; be liable to answer, as a charge or challenge.
   • The knight of Ivanhoe […] underlies the challenge of Brian der Bois Guilbert. 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
5. To underlay.

Forms

Deriveds

underlier

Synonyms

underpin

Translations (15)

bg стоя в основата на (to serve as a basis of) · pt embasar (to serve as a basis of) · es subyacer (to serve as a basis of) · pt basear (to serve as a basis of) · fr sous-tendre (to serve as a basis of) · cmn 构成基础 (to serve as a basis of) · pt fundamentar (to serve as a basis of) · pt sustentar (to serve as a basis of) · ja 基礎となる (to serve as a basis of) · pt subjazer (to serve as a basis of) · fi olla perustana (to serve as a basis of) · id melandasi (to serve as a basis of) · de zugrunde liegen (to serve as a basis of) · id mendasari (to serve as a basis of) · nl ten grondslag liggen aan (to serve as a basis of)