just beneath the surface
- idiom
:
justo debajo de la superficie
- Although she smiled, there was sadness just beneath the surface that only her close friends could sense.
Examples
-
He had feelings of doubt just beneath the surface, even though he appeared confident during the meeting.
-
Her excitement lay just beneath the surface, waiting to be revealed when she received the good news.
-
In the shadow of the boat, about twenty feet out, I could see the shark moving fast just beneath the surface.
Academic text (1997) -
The shark looked huge, its gray-green length moving lazily along just beneath the surface.
Academic text (1997) -
But this raises a question of faith that lies just beneath the surface of the narrative: if Solomon had believed that this were the case, why would he have needed to commit fratricide, an act nowhere justified in the Bible, but rather only forcefully condemned?
Academic text (1997)
Synonyms
9
4.2
Under something so it is covered and cannot be seen
Antonyms
How Hidden
Surface Forms
Morphology
just + beneath + the + surface
The sense ‘hidden or not immediately obvious but close to being revealed’ is directly derivable from combining 'just' (slightly/precisely) + 'beneath' (under) + 'surface' (outer layer): the phrase literally means slightly under the top layer and metaphorically maps to a feeling or quality that is close to being seen. This spatial-to-abstract mapping is common cross-linguistically and follows normal English composition, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Just beneath the surface makes you picture something lying a little beneath the surface of water, like a shadow or bubble you can almost see. So, it means a 'feeling' or quality is hidden but very close to being shown.