Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#UNDERDRAWCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#UNDERDRAW underdrawen, equivalent to under- +‎ drawCategory:English terms prefixed with under-#DRAW.

Pronunciation

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  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#UNDERDRAW

Verb

underdraw (third-person singular simple present underdraws, present participle underdrawing, simple past underdrew, past participle underdrawn)Category:English lemmas#UNDERDRAWCategory:English verbs#UNDERDRAWCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#UNDERDRAWCategory:Pages with entries#UNDERDRAWCategory:Pages with 1 entry#UNDERDRAW

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#UNDERDRAW) To cover or line the underside of (a floor or roof) with plasterwork, boarding or other such treatment.
   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 6:

     The [roof] had never been underdrawn, its entire anatomy lay bare to an inquiring eye, except where a frame of wood laden with oatcakes, and clusters of legs of beef, mutton and ham, concealed it.

     Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERDRAW

   • 1876, Great Britain. HM Factory Inspectorate, Factories and Workshops, page 37:

     He has the whole of the room underdrawn, with the exception of two bays at one end; he admits plenty of air by the windows in the roof into the triangular shaped space formed by the roof and the underdrawing;

     Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERDRAW

2. To take or draw less than one needs or is entitled to.
   • 1906, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers: 1850-1908 - Volume 57:

     You say for month and months you had been underdrawing? — Always underdrawing and giving up every month. Whatever we drew the officer signed an indent for and we gave up a surplus.

     Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERDRAW

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#UNDERDRAW) To represent inadequately in an artistic depiction, or in words.
4. To sketch a work of art in chalk, pencil, or other temporary medium prior to painting, inking, or otherwise making the final work.
   • 2005, Iain Topliss, The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams and Saul Steinberg, page 108:

     Here was the warrant (or at least a justification) not just for Steig's drawings of people as bodily symptoms but, more important, for his abandoning underdrawing in pencil prepartory to inking in a drawing.

     Category:English terms with quotations#UNDERDRAW