I. | ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷| ̷ ̷ verb
Etymology: Middle English underliggen, underligen, underlien, from Old English underlicgan, from under (I) + licgan to lie — more at lie
transitive verb
1.
a. obsolete : to submit to the will or direction of
b. obsolete : to undergo the infliction of (a penalty or judgment)
c. Scotland : to surrender oneself to (law)
d. obsolete : to assume the expense of or responsibility for
2. : to lie or be situated under
shale underlies the coal
delta underlain by a clay bed
granite on the outside underlain with basalt — Science
3. : to be at the basis of : form the foundation of : support
political ideas underlying the revolution
law of gravitation and his equations of motion apply to and underlie immense realms of physical experience — Julian Huxley
4. : to lie concealed beneath the obvious exterior of
the human and personal actualities that underlie the impersonality of justice — F.R.Leavis
probe the mysterious causality that may underlie chance — H.C.Webster
5. : to exist as a claim or security superior and prior to (another)
a first mortgage underlies a second
intransitive verb
1. obsolete : to lie in the grave
2. Britain : to incline from the vertical : hade
II. ˈ ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷ noun
1. Britain : slope
2. : the angle made by the center line of a stull with a line normal to the hanging wall at their point of incidence — called also underset