undertow
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See also: under tow
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Verb[edit]
undertow (third-person singular simple present undertows, present participle undertowing, simple past and past participle undertowed)
- (transitive) To pull or tow under; drag beneath; pull down.
- 1914, Denton Jaques Snider, Lincoln at Richmond:
- Off in a gallop the General wheeled vanishing, And sped his steed away into the blue, When Lineoln now alone let go his speech Which had before been undertowed by force, [...]
- (transitive) To pull down by, or as by, an undertow.
- 1998, Richard Gough, David Williams, Ric Allsopp, Performance Research: On Place:
- A sense that the air, a sighting of muddy river, or that outcrop of rock so implacably bland in the light of midday, is undertowed by memory.
- 2003, Michael T. Leibig, Mike Leibig Traveling in Disguise:
- I sink because I cannot swim, undertowed to the Centre, abandoning all remembrance of the surface toward the cloud of unknowing, without choice I'm pulled.
- (intransitive) To flow or behave as an undertow.
- 1917, The Unpopular review:
- Everybody knows this and acts accordingly; but when you say it, it sounds bad and bold, and makes you uncomfortable to hear it, because the puritan blood is still undertowing in your veins.
Noun[edit]
undertow (plural undertows)
- A short-range flow of water returning seaward from the waves breaking on the shore.
- A strong undertow may sweep a returning swimmer off their feet but it does not carry them far from the shore.
- (by extension) A feeling that runs contrary to one's normal one.
Translations[edit]
flow of water
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feeling
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