underpull

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ pull.

Verb

underpull (third-person singular simple present underpulls, present participle underpulling, simple past and past participle underpulled)

1. (transitive) To exert one's influence secretly.
   • 1896, Edmund Brown Viney Christian, A Short History of Solicitors:

     It may have been that the lower ranks of the apprenticii, in the words of The Compleat Solicitor, underpulled causes during the long term of study then necessary before the rank of utter barrister was attained.

   • a. 1734, Roger North, The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North:

     His Lordship, while he was a Student, and during his Incapacity to practise aboveboard, was contented to underpull, as they call it, and managed diverse Suits for his Country Friends and Relations […]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “underpull”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)