underclass

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English

Etymology

From under- +‎ class.

Pronunciation

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Noun

underclass (plural underclasses)

  1. The poorest class of people in a given society.
    • 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):
      The two are immediately caught up in a terrorist plot to rid the earth of its underclass, and this gives Nobby the chance to live out a James Bond fantasy of Englishness, with his own lager-swilling twist.
    • 2019 March 3, Simon van Zuylen-Wood, “When Did Everyone Become a Socialist?”, in New York Magazine:
      Still, among New York’s creative underclass — cash poor but culturally potent — it feels like everything but socialism is now irrelevant.
    • 2019 August 12, Derek Thompson, “America's Hot New Job Is Being a Rich Person's Servant”, in The Atlantic:
      While there are reasons to be optimistic about this trend, there is also something queasy about the emergence of a new underclass of urban servants.

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