subterrene

comparative more subterrene · superlative most subterrene

1. underground, subterranean

   Then he saw a sort of grey phosphorescence about, and guessed they were coming even to that inner world of subterrene horror of which dim legends tell, and which is litten only by the pale death-fire wherewith reeks the ghoulish air and the primal mists of the pits at earth’s core.

   1927, H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

plural subterrenes

1. rareA machine for drilling or tunneling underground.

   In the first field tests, a series of holes 2 inches in diameter and 12 feet deep were sunk with the rock-melting device, or subterrene.

   1972, American Nuclear Society, Nuclear News, volume 15, page 47

   2 more examples

   With a deafening screech of metal upon rock—which surely must echo through all the recesses of the Mountain, and waken all its nightmare brood!—the subterrene smashed through the wall and came to rest beside them.

   1956, Arthur C. Clarke, chapter 1, in The City and the Stars

   … “The beauty of the Subterrene is that, as it burrows through the rock hundreds of feet below the surface, it heats whatever stone it encounters into molten rock, or magma, which cools after the Subterrene has moved on. …

   2009, November, Mark Ellis as James Axler, Outlanders 051: Warlord of the Pit