a. and sb. Also 7 -en. [ad. L. subterrēnus: see SUB- 1 a and TERRENE.]

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  A.  adj.

2

  1.  Underground; = SUBTERRANEAN 1.

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1610.  Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, X. ix. 372. Sixe kindes of Dæmones. First the fiery,… 5. the subterrene, that liue in caues.

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1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 302. The earth is full of subterrene fires.

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a. 1711.  Ken, Hymnarium, Poet. Wks. II. 127. Shew me the Gulph, that’s fix’d between The upper Hades, and the sub-terrene.

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1829.  I. Taylor, Enthus., ix. 228. Those dungeons of dimness,… those labyrinths of subterrene communication.

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1862.  Macm. Mag., May, 64. The inconvenience of the subterrene trains.

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1878.  Proctor, Pleas. Ways Sci., ix. (1879), 181. The activity thus exhibited … had its origin in the same subterrene or submarine region as the Peruvian earthquake.

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  2.  Infernal; = SUBTERRANEAN 2.

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1836.  I. Taylor, Phys. Theory, xvi. 219, note. The three great orders of the intelligent economy—the heavenly, the earthly, and the subterrene.

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1858.  Caswall, Poems, 80. Dread Angels subterrene Mighty in works of ill.

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  B.  sb. An underground dwelling, etc.; (with the) the underworld.

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1854.  Syd. Dobell, Balder, xviii. 75. Have we shut thee forth, poor child, And wist not of thy journey, nor the end And exit of that gloomy subterrene Which thou didst enter?

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1856.  Tasso & Leonora, 95. Being as transparent as Montesino’s glass Castle, while he fancied himself as impenetrable as the said Montesino’s Subterrene.

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1867.  J. B. Rose, trans. Virg. Æneid, Notes 404. The urns and sarcophagi in these subterrenes bear purely native mythological subjects.

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c. 1873.  J. Addis, Eliz. Echoes (1879), 94. Th’ uncertain hum Of hosts upsweeping from the subterrene.

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