underground
7
3.6
- noun
- /ˈʌndərˌɡraʊnd/
- UK
:
metro
- During rush hour, hundreds of commuters use the underground to get to work in the city.
The private sector in Chicago built an illegal underground subway system without the city knowing it.
- The private sector in Chicago built an illegal underground subway system without the city knowing it.
- And you know what else I realise anyone from especially the Northerners love to hate the Underground.
- And I said to Richard, who like me, is a fan of dark humor, I said, I said, this is about the size and width of the London Underground.
- Baker Street Underground's really cool and we got some really cool photos and yeah, now we're going to go and get some dumplings.
- So this is when the London Underground and the other railway is not running through White Chapel or trains are not stopping in White Chapel.
- There's, you know, the London Underground and buses which carry goods and people from one part of the city to another.
- In Cologne, Germany, several schools use waste heat from sewage water, and the Islington district in London captures waste heat from the London Underground.
Examples
-
The smell had struck them, rolled over them, when they'd stepped off the train in the underground.
Fiction book (1990) -
Rumbling through the underground in the yellow light, I let my shoulders roll with the train.
Fiction book (1997) -
Been on the underground, looking for that new sound.
-
Especially when I was in London and on the underground, there was some really good stuff down there.
Blog text (2) -
The private sector in Chicago built an illegal underground subway system without the city knowing it.
-
The underground hadn't changed much since his childhood, and it was the part of the city he knew best.
Fiction book (2002) -
There's, you know, the London Underground and buses which carry goods and people from one part of the city to another.
-
Sam is surrounded by passengers, the eerie world of the underground at night.
Fiction book (2001) -
But yeah, I'm just heading to the Underground now and then I can go to Moorgate where I put my first meeting.
-
Berlin underground is special.
Synonyms
268
1.0
Underground trains that carry people in a city
106
2.4
An underground railway in London that carries people
50
1.8
An underground train system in a city that carries people
17
2.4
Electric trains that run under a city and carry many people
Antonyms
Compounds
8
4.1
Secret network that helped enslaved people escape to free states and Canada
1
7.5
A group of musicians and artists who work outside the mainstream, often in secret
A secret U.S. network that helped enslaved people escape to free states or Canada before the Civil War
How Deep
Surface Forms
Morphology
underground = underground (semi-transparent) = under + ground
The form is clearly built from 'under' + 'ground', but the noun meaning 'electric railway system' is a lexicalized extension from the literal 'below ground' sense.
Etymology
Underground as a noun comes from the idea of trains running under ('below') the ground ('the earth'). That's why in British English the city railway that runs 'below the surface' is called the 'Underground' and means the subway.