v. [UNDER-1 8 b, 10 a. Cf. Da. underbyde, Sw. -bjuda.]
† 1. trans. To value at a lower rate; to undervalue.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 67. When hee bath resolued to prize himselfe … so great, and some man (as proude as himselfe) comes and vnderbids him.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal. & Tri. Faith (1845), 99. Oh, we under-bid, and undervalue that Prince of love, who did overvalue us.
2. intr. To make too low an offer.
1611. Cotgr., Mesoffrir, to vnderbid; to offer lesse for a thing then tis worth.
1679. Dryden, Limberham, II. i. Before George, Son Limberham, you’ll spoil all, if you under-bid so.
3. trans. To outbid (a person); to supplant by making a better offer.
1677. Miége, Fr. Dict., II. To under-bid one.
1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, III. v. ’Tis only an inhancing the price of the Commodity, by telling you how many Customers have underbid her.
1864. Lowell, Study Wind. (1886), 124. Strepsiades striving to underbid him in demagogism.
b. spec. To supplant by making a lower offer; to offer services, labor, or goods at lower wages or prices than (another).
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, II. 78. A pauper, who[m] … the Major had got for a coachman by underbidding everybody else.
1871. Mill, Pol. Econ., IV. vii. § 7, II. 378. It is also to be protected against being underbid for employment by a less highly paid class of labourers.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 131. No tradesman or manufacturer likes to see himself underbid by those who offer better goods at lower prices.
Hence Underbidding vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1642. D. Rogers, Naaman, 142. That we might bee dispensed within our underbidding of the price which God calls for. Ibid., 146. To take out of thine heart this slavish, base, and unbeteaming and underbidding nature.
1900. Contemp. Rev., July, 128. We must abolish competition, preventing underbidding by fixing prices.
