underplot

American  

[uhn-der-plot] / ˈʌn dərˌplɒt /

noun

1. a plot subordinate to another plot, as in a novel.

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underplot British  

/ ˈʌndəˌplɒt /

noun

1. a subsidiary plot in a literary or dramatic work

2. an undercover plot

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Etymology

Origin of underplot

First recorded in 1660–70; under- + plot

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

underplot

The underplot in Sooky concerns Sooky's efforts to get into a juvenile club whose members wear uniforms and drill like soldiers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Southerne had further added an excellent comic underplot, full of humour and the truest vis comica.

From The Works of Aphra Behn Volume V by Montague Summers

In stage presentation the play also shows a wide departure from Kyd, especially in the indescribable comic underplot.

From Tragedy by Ashley H. Thorndike

The entire atmosphere, so to speak, of the play is stifling, and is not rendered less so by the underplot with Hippolita.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 6 "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" by Various

Thus I return to the older verdict of Coleridge and Lamb, that Shakspere wrote passages of this play, perhaps also the outlines, but that Fletcher filled up, added an underplot, and finally revised.

From A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen and on the characteristics of Shakspere's style and the secret of his supremacy by William Spalding

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