underachieve
/ʌndərəˈtʃiːv
/verb [no object]
Do less well than expected, especially in schoolwork: the report focused on pupils who were underachieving...
- It is hard to believe he was a child who consistently underachieved at school, whose reports said ‘nice and friendly’ but never mentioned any outstanding mental ability.
- All had underachieved at school, had few if any qualifications and had no job.
- These are aimed at pupils who are underachieving or at risk of exclusion and cover basic skills like literacy and numeracy as well as sport, music, ICT and media courses.
Derivatives
underachiever
/ noun ...- I was expected to do it; I knew I should do it and that if I didn't I would be put in the box of losers, underachievers.
- Yet now these gap-year students and educational underachievers are formally charged with divesting our children of their ignorance; or at least the children who are sent to nursery schools or childminding circles.
- Within a fortnight of its American release it had earned £75 million - a bona fide critical and commercial box-office hit in a summer of heavy-hitting underachievers.