undergird
to strengthen; secure, as by passing a rope or chain under and around: to undergird a top-heavy load.
to give fundamental support; provide with a sound or secure basis: ethics undergirded by faith.
Origin of undergird
1Words Nearby undergird
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use undergird in a sentence
The demonstrators in Washington want to take those foundational principles, principles that have undergirded this nation for 250 years, and toss them out.
Woman dies after shooting in U.S. Capitol; D.C. National Guard activated after mob breaches building | Washington Post Staff | January 7, 2021 | Washington PostThese include the commands undergirding such basic intracellular activities as how energy is derived from hydrocarbon molecules, and the coding system by which nucleic acids are translated into proteins.
Over Time, Buddhism and Science Agree - Issue 94: Evolving | David P. Barash | December 23, 2020 | NautilusQuiroga contends that we can form and use these memories in ways unique to us, without the pattern separation seen in many other species, undergirding what makes us special.
Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV - Issue 93: Forerunners | Adithya Rajagopalan | December 2, 2020 | NautilusThe West has long marveled at the business empire built by Tencent, whose ubiquitous everything-app, WeChat, undergirds so much of daily life in China.
WhatsApp is on its way to becoming the world’s next super-app | rhhackettfortune | December 2, 2020 | FortuneLiu has denied that geopolitics undergird his work, but Fan writes that when the book was published “the models for Trisolaris and Earth were immediately apparent.”
Netflix enlisted ‘Game of Thrones’ team to adapt China’s best-selling sci-fi novel. Then came controversy | Grady McGregor | October 3, 2020 | Fortune
But the austerity policies that this research helped undergird are still alive and well.
Austerity’s Scottish Ghosts Haunt the Modern Economic Mind | Mark Blyth | May 12, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTTo the contrary, he views them as essential to restoring the economic strength that must undergird that power.
Multiplied to infinity, choices no longer undergird values, but options that are equally mediocre.
The Civilization of Illiteracy | Mihai NadinIn this universe, literacy and religion undergird the legal system.
The Civilization of Illiteracy | Mihai Nadin
British Dictionary definitions for undergird
/ (ˌʌndəˈɡɜːd) /
(tr) to strengthen or reinforce by passing a rope, cable, or chain around the underside of (an object, load, etc)
Origin of undergird
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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