[UNDER-2.]
1. a. The earth or soil lying below the surface.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 157. To defend the roots of my young trees from the damp, raw under earth.
b. Mining. (See quot.)
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-m., 267. Underearth, a hard bastard fireclay forming the floor of a seam of coal.
2. The regions below the earth.
1878. Gladstone, Homer, iv. 56. Tartaros … standing to the Under-earth as the heaven stands to the Upper … world-surface.
1896. Boston (Mass.) Youth’s Companion, 10 Dec., 659/2. The economical resources of the underearth were the goals of the first practical studies of the rocks.
