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Glite Dictionary
📉 To do poorly 🎭 To be rarely shown
to underperform

to underperform

1 5.8
To be shown or played less often than expected, as with plays
  • verb
  • /ˌʌndərpərˈfɔrm/
translation icon : representarse pocas veces
  • The report shows that several new films underperformed at the box office despite strong marketing.

Examples

  • The jobs report out last week was the first glimpse of truth because it was brazenly awful, underperforming every prediction.

  • My own children currently attend a state (Georgia) online public school as the zoned schools are underperforming and have been designated FOCUS schools.

    Blog text (29)

  • Jackson requested a sense of urgency when it came to the short-term and long-term plans for underperforming schools in the district.

    Blog text (14)

  • This unique flexibility is matched by strong accountability and high standards, so underperforming charter schools can be closed, while those that consistently help students succeed can serve as models of reform for other public schools.

    Blog text (14)

  • Unlike Reed's underperforming solo debut, it contained mostly new material that post-dated the Velvet Underground.

    Blog text (9)

  • One key question that’s been unanswered in North America and across the pond is why equities have underperformed the commodity and whether that will continue.

    Blog text (17)

  • King, citing "pervasive compliance" problems, followed through on a federal panel's decision to nix the council for failing to protect students and taxpayers from fraudulent and underperforming colleges.

    Academic text (2016)

  • The play has continually underperformed, attracting fewer audiences than anticipated.

  • Many investors were surprised when the company’s stock underperformed in the recent market downturn.

Surface Forms

underperform infinitive
underperformed past
underperformed past participle
underperforming present participle
underperforms third person singular

Morphology

underperform = perform (transparent) = under + perform

The sense 'be performed less frequently or with less success' follows straightforwardly from 'under-' + 'perform', a directly interpretable prefixation.

Etymology

Underperform is built from the parts under- 'below' and perform 'to put on a show' or 'to do'. So, a play that is underperformed is shown 'below' the number of times people expect — it is staged less often than it deserves.