underset

English

Alternative forms

• under-set

Etymology

From Middle English undersetten, from Old English undersettan (“to put, place, or set under, put in the place of another, substitute, falsify, forge, counterfeit, place as a pledge, hypothecate, add, annex, subjoin, make subject, submit, set beneath, esteem less”), equivalent to under- +‎ set. Cognate with Dutch ondersetten (“to put beneath”), German untersetzen (“to put beneath, pin”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛt

Verb

underset (third-person singular simple present undersets, present participle undersetting, simple past and past participle underset)

1. (transitive) To set under or beneath.
   • 1963, George Sturt, The Wheelwright's Shop:

     How it was shaped up with proper foreway and under-set for dished wheels, or how iron "clouts" (with "clout-nails") were carefully fitted into it to take the wear — is all but gone from my memory, as indeed it was hardly worth storing [...]

2. To prop or support.
   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

     being a company at that time , and well underset with rich men , and good order

   • 1887, Arthur Robert Sawyer, Accidents in mines in the North Staffordshire coalfield arising from falls of roof and sides:

     Unless posts are underset in very steep mines they are apt to fall out before the pressure of the roof has tightened them. Posts are sometimes too much underset, owing to their being too long.

Noun

underset (plural undersets)

1. undercurrent (of water)

Anagrams

• dentures, detuners, endurest, sederunt, tsundere, unrested