undertow
3
7.8
- noun
- /ˈʌndərˌtoʊ/
:
subcorriente
- Despite her cheerful facade, there was an undertow of sadness in her eyes.
Examples
-
Friedman notes that there is an "undertow of concern" throughout the United States about education.
Academic text (2009) -
There is the feeling, at the back of my knees, of the undertow of secrets about to be given away.
Fiction book (1992) -
And it gets you down below the surface of the water in the marriage, where the undertow is.
Fiction book (1996) -
Waves of blame and an undertow of regret marked their year together.
Fiction book (1995) -
By now, the brain is foggy, its logic unpredictable, caught in the undertow of need.
Fiction book (1993) -
In a few short years, the democratic wave has been slowed by a powerful authoritarian undertow, and the world has slipped into a democratic recession.
Academic text (2008) -
Once, my home port was Metara," said Oudeis, an undertow of yearning in his voice.
Fiction book (1995) -
Perhaps, too, this impossible time scape of postmodernity itself betrays a deep undertow of anxiety about presentness.
Academic text (1993) -
And there's a further polemical thrust that's not made explicit but is a subtle undertow in the poem.
-
When I saw the miniature dishes, bright golden wood painted with a delicate row of blue and green flowers, I felt myself being carried back in time, tugged out to sea by the strong undertow of memory, that current of images and sensations that has so much to do with the direction we take in life but of which we are usually unaware.
Fiction book (1991)
Synonyms
17
6.9
A hidden feeling beneath what someone shows or says
1
7.7
A movement that goes against the main view in a group
A feeling that reduces the strength of another feeling
How Strong
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word undertow comes from under 'below' and tow 'pull', and it gives the image of a quiet force under a calm surface. So we use undertow for a hidden feeling or influence that quietly pulls beneath what you first see.