underpinning

underpinning

1. present participle and gerund of underpin

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underpinning

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underpinning (plural underpinnings)

1. A support or foundation, especially as a structure of masonry that supports a wall.

   This house's underpinning is not up to standard.

   • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 319:

     Released were two singles that went nowhere fast; the third, "Early Morning Love" (#68, 1974), was a teasing male fantasy with a folkie feel and countrified pedal-steel guitar underpinnings.

2. (figurative) A basis for something.

   I would like to know more about the underpinning of this political theory.

   • 2025 March 4, Marina Hyde, “It’s With Love, Meghan – not just a TV show but a landmark piece of art. And not in a good way”, in The Guardian‎:

     Other eras have had their epicureans or hedonists, of course, who lived and sometimes died for the ideal of simplicity or pleasure in an epic kind of way. But today’s gazillion-strong influencer community has zero intellectual underpinning to it, which is why it’s so often the unwitting butt of its own joke.

3. (figurative, humorous) The lower body or legs.
   • 1913, Joseph C Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”