[UNDER-1 5 d, 10 b.]
1. A growth of plants or shrubs under trees or other tall vegetation; brushwood, underwood.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, VI. x. 744. There must good regard be taken euery where, what plants of branches or vndergrowth are dead.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 175. The undergrowth Of shrubs and tangling bushes.
1794. Vancouver, Agric. Cambridge, 117. In this parish is found some very good woodland…; the undergrowth is cut once in fourteen years.
1822. Shelley, trans. Calderon’s Mag. Prodig., I. 3. This intricate wild wilderness of trees … and undergrowth of odorous plants.
1884. Q. Victoria, More Leaves, 308. The tangled undergrowth of fern, &c. is almost like a jungle.
b. The shorter stems of certain cultivated plants.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 457. What is commonly called under-growth [of flax], may be neglected as useless.
1865. Pall Mall G., 3 July, 5/2. Much of what farmers call the under-growths or under-stems of wheat are not coming into ear at all.
2. A growth of (shorter and finer) hair or wool underlying the outer fur or fleece.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 20. Such sheepe as have their wooll thus risen, have, without question, a goode undergrowth.
1879. Encycl. Brit., X. 709/1. This undergrowth [of the Cashmere goat] … is beautifully soft and silky.
3. The condition of being undergrown or undersized; imperfect growth.
1891. Lancet, 14 March, 624/2. Cases of heart disease,… of undergrowth, and underdevelopment.
