释义 |
ˈunderˌcurrent, n. and a. [under-1 5 b or c.] 1. a. A stream or current of water, air, etc., flowing beneath the upper current, or below the surface. Also fig. of Time.
1683T. Smith in Phil. Trans. XIV. 565 My conjecture is, that there is an under-current, whereby as great a quantity of water is carried out, as comes flowing in. 1687Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 110 Time shall no more her under-current know, But one with great Eternity shall grow; Their streams shall mix. 1762Phil. Trans. LII. 448 Recourse is had to the notion of an under-current. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 181 The descending water sinks down and forms an under⁓current. 1878Huxley Physiogr. xx. 346 Part of this air then returns as an undercurrent. b. In hydraulic gold-mining, a settling-box additional to the main sluice.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 95 The company has this season added a series of under-currents near the point where the washings empty into the river. 2. fig. An activity, force, tendency, etc., of a suppressed or underlying character.
1792[see reaction 4 a]. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. i. 23 Our genuine admiration of a great poet is a continuous under-current of feeling. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xvi. 115 That undercurrent of emotion which surrounds the question of one's personal safety. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 371 That gift of humour, that genuine under-current of the soul. 3. attrib. or as adj. That runs or flows out of sight; concealed, hidden; suppressed.
1855Tennyson Maud i. xviii. viii, My heart more blest than heart can tell, Blest, but for some dark undercurrent woe. 1896Daily News 9 Apr. 3/2 There was a good deal of under-current protest. |