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UNDERGROUND
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An electric railway operating below the surface of the ground (usually in a city)
Example:
in Paris the subway system is called the 'metro' and in London it is called the 'tube' or the 'underground'
Synonyms:
metro; subway; subway system; tube; underground
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("underground" is a kind of...):
railroad; railroad line; railway; railway line; railway system (line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a system of transportation for trains that pull passengers or freight)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A secret group organized to overthrow a government or occupation force
Synonyms:
resistance; underground
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("underground" is a kind of...):
revolutionary group (a political unit organized to promote revolution)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "underground"):
Maquis (the French underground that fought against the German occupation in World War II)
Derivation:
underground (conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
Example:
underground resistance
Synonyms:
clandestine; cloak-and-dagger; hole-and-corner; hugger-mugger; hush-hush; secret; surreptitious; undercover; underground
Classified under:
Similar:
covert (secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed)
Derivation:
underground (a secret group organized to overthrow a government or occupation force)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Under the level of the ground
Example:
underground caverns
Synonyms:
belowground; underground
Classified under:
Similar:
subsurface (beneath the surface)
III. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Beneath the surface of the earth
Example:
water flowing underground
Classified under:
Sense 2
Meaning:
In or into hiding or secret operation
Example:
the organization was driven underground
Classified under:
Context examples:
Its current orbit is not expected to generate significant tides, so any ancient underground ocean may be frozen by now.
(Cracks in Pluto's moon could indicate it once had an underground ocean, NASA)
A small percentage of organic carbon is not broken down by microbes, but instead stays preserved underground for millions of years.
(Carbon hides in sediment, keeping oxygen in atmosphere, National Science Foundation)
With its towering ice formations and large underground ice deposit, Scărișoara Ice Cave is among the most important scientific sites in Europe.
(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)
Garlic plants produce an underground bulb that usually is divisible into 6-20 segments, called cloves.
(Allium sativum, NCI Thesaurus)
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.
(Hubble Observations Suggest Underground Ocean on Jupiter's Largest Moon, NASA)
Instead of being buried underground, the solid carbon produced by the method could be used as a fuel source or as feedstock, as the element is in other carbon utilization approaches.
(Scientists Turn CO2 into Solid Coal, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
A small, mammal of the family Talpidae that lives underground and feeds on small invertebrates.
(Mole, NCI Thesaurus)
Actually a complex mixture of isomers, other chlorinated hydrocarbons, and by-products, chlordane is used in termite and ant control, and as a protective treatment for underground cables.
(Chlordane, NCI Thesaurus)
The deep biosphere: an underground ecosystem of bacteria and multi-celled organisms vastly outweighing all of human life on the surface.
(Researchers Create New Model of Ecosystem Hidden Beneath Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
These eight scarps, with slopes as steep as 55 degrees, reveal new information about the internal layered structure of previously detected underground ice sheets in Mars' middle latitudes.
(Steep Slopes on Mars Reveal Structure of Buried Ice, NASA)
