understage

1. not comparableunderneath the stage

plural understages

1. entertainmentThe area beneath a stage.

   The understage being only 9 feet (5 braccia) high, the mountain had to rise in telescoping stages

   1996, James M. Saslow, The Medici wedding of 1589: Florentine festival as Theatrum Mundi, page 86

   2 more examples

   When deep pits, required in the understage for the machinery and traps, cannot be drained on account of insufficient depth of the street sewer

   1900, William Paul Gerhard, Theatres: Their Safety from Fire and Panic, Their Comfort and Healthfulness, page 97

   dozens of strapping stage-hands in the understage manipulating warships, cannons dispatching balls of fire, blue smoke.

   2001, Augusto Boal with Adrian Jackson and Candida Blaker, Hamlet and the baker's son: my life in theatre and politics

present singular third person understages · participle present understaging · participle past understaged · past understaged

1. medicineTo underestimate the severity of a patient's illness