underwork

present singular third person underworks · participle present underworking · participle past underworked · past underworked · archaic participle past underwrought · archaic past underwrought

1. transitiveTo require too little work from; to work insufficiently.
2. intransitiveobsoleteTo work or operate in secret or clandestinely.

   [H]e raiſeth (in priuate) a nevv Inſtrument, one Sertorius Macro, and by him vndervvorketh, diſcouers the others Coũſells [i.e., counsels], his Means, his Ends, […]

   1605, Ben[jamin] Jonson, “The Argument”, in Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, →OCLC, , signature [A4], recto

3. ambitransitiveTo do less work than necessary (on).

   to underwork a painting

4. intransitiveTo do work for inadequate payment.
5. transitiveTo injure by working secretly; to destroy or overthrow by clandestine measure; to undermine.

   But thou from loving England art so far, That thou hast underwrought his lawful king.

   c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

6. transitiveTo do similar work for a lesser price than; to undercut.

   One mason may underwork another.

1. uncountableSubordinate work; petty business.

   the underwork of the nation

   1708, Joseph Addison, The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation

2. uncountableAn underneath structure, for example for physical support

   underwork of marble

   2 more examples

   the underwork of a road

   underwork of the carriage