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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

underwhelm en · VERB

Pronunciation

Etymology

From under- + whelm: a humorous coinage by novel negation of overwhelm first recorded in the 1950s.

Meanings

  1. To fail to impress; to perform disappointingly.
    • The fact that I even mentioned YouTube in the same paragraph as the middling TV company ViacomCBS and Twitter … well, that says something about how YouTube has underwhelmed for some time. 2021 August 5, Shira Ovide, “YouTube Is Underwhelming”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
underwhelmed Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
underwhelmed Tense=Past lexicographic
underwhelms Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
underwhelming Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Antonyms

overwhelm · overawe

Relateds

anticlimax · damp squib

Translations (17)

ro dezamăgi (fail to impress) · fi olla mitäänsanomaton (fail to impress) · hu alulmúlja a várakozásait (fail to impress) · ru разочарова́ть (fail to impress) · pt desapontar (fail to impress) · fr laisser sur sa faim (fail to impress) · pl rozczarować (fail to impress) · de enttäuschen (fail to impress) · io deceptar (fail to impress) · ru разочаро́вывать (fail to impress) · hu csalódást kelt/okoz (fail to impress) · de unterwältigen (fail to impress) · fr décevoir (fail to impress) · ro decepționa (fail to impress) · nl teleurstellen (fail to impress) · ro deziluziona (fail to impress) · es decepcionar (fail to impress)