underwork

From under- +‎ work.

• IPA^(key): (verb) /ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈwɜː(ɹ)k/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): (noun) /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌwɜː(ɹ)k/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

underwork (third-person singular simple present underworks, present participle underworking, simple past and past participle underworked or (archaic) underwrought)

1. (transitive) To require too little work from; to work insufficiently.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To work or operate in secret or clandestinely.
   • 1605, Ben[jamin] Jonson, “The Argument”, in Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, →OCLC, , signature [A4], recto:

     [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, […]

3. (ambitransitive) To do less work than necessary (on).

   to underwork a painting

4. (intransitive) To do work for inadequate payment.
5. (transitive) To injure by working secretly; to destroy or overthrow by clandestine measure; to undermine.
   • 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]:

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

6. (transitive) To do similar work for a lesser price than; to undercut.

   One mason may underwork another.

underwork (uncountable)

1. Subordinate work; petty business.
   • 1708, Joseph Addison, The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation:

     the underwork of the nation

2. An underneath structure, for example for physical support

   the underwork of a road

   underwork of marble

   underwork of the carriage

• “underwork”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.