underimpress

present singular third person underimpresses · participle present underimpressing · participle past underimpressed · past underimpressed

1. transitiveTo impress less than expected; to disappoint, to underwhelm.

   Farmed trout, which used to underimpress me with its boring tastelessness, has gone through some kind of taste revolution: it's absolutely terrific, now, whenever I buy it.

   2014, Tod Davies, “Three: Food for Home”, in Jam Today Too, United States: Exterminating Angel Press, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   The tendency for judges to be overly impressed by family work done by fathers and underimpressed by that done by mothers shows how women can be made vulnerable by a standard designed around gender rather than around sex.

   2001 September 13, Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 230

   Just as too much scientific evidence and medical detail may overwhelm or underimpress the court, the opinion should not contain too much 'heart-searching' and repetitive reasoning.

   2020 August 25, Niruj Agrawal, Rafey Faruqui, Mayur Bodani, Oxford Textbook of Neuropsychiatry (Oxford Textbooks in Psychiatry), Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 524