underspoken

1. participlepastpast participle of underspeak

comparative more underspoken · superlative most underspoken

1. Characterized by understatement; understated.

   But trust him, I don't think I ever did. Even in his new, earnest, underspoken self.

   2002, Peter Carnahan, Pharnabazus Sits on the Ground with the Spartan Captains, page 77

   3 more examples

   The Anglo-Saxon Charles Darwin, underspoken and gentlemanly, impersonal and asexual and blankly observant in his writings, was a hero in teeming, passionate, polyglot Guayaquil because he was the inspiration for a tourist boom.

   1999, Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos, page 16

   In a very underspoken sense one may view the achievements of Copernicus, Kepler, Brahe - the giants on whose shoulders Newton stood — and Newton as being the unfolding and solution of this very problem.

   2015, Elliott H. Lieb, Studies in Mathematical Physics, page 3

   "We are simply doing our service for Gilead," she said in her underspoken robot Aunt's way, and the Angel said, "Praise be."

   2019, Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, →ISBN, page 345