vbl. sb. [f. as prec.]
1. The action of digging under, excavating, eroding, etc. Also in fig. contexts.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 277. Þis housebondis hous is his bodi, þat his soule is kept ynne; and undirmynyng of þis hous mai be don on two maneres.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 511/1. Vnder myndynge (P. vndermynynge), idem quod vnderdeluynge, supra.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. i. 124. Fortes are wonne … by battery,… by vndermining, and such like.
1629. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 78. By the vndermining of which alone, the whole superstruction … [is] vtterly subuerted.
1679. C. Nesse, Antichrist, 37. Their worshipping of saints [is] … no better then real underminings of the sacred foundation.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 271. The banks … jagged and torn by … the silent underminings of waves.
1726. Cavallier, Mem., IV. 342. They came by underminding as far as the brink of the Ditch.
1833–4. J. Phillips, Geol., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VI. 705/1. The most characteristic effect of a cascade, is that ceaseless undermining of its base and sides.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 765. There are ulcers with but slight undermining of their edges.
† b. An excavation or mine. Obs.–1
1572. R. H., trans. Lauaterus’ Ghostes, 73. These [spirits] wander vp and down in caues and vnderminings.
2. The action of insidiously plotting, assailing, subverting, etc.; an instance of this.
1433. Lydg., St. Fremund, 559. By vndirmynyng, this was his menyng: After Fremund he to be crownyd kyng.
1530. Palsgr., 285. Undermyndyng, subornation.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lii. 5. He had … betrayed the giltlesse Preestes by treason and undermyning.
1600. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will, F 3 b. Familiaritie and conference, That were the sinewes of societies, Are now for vnderminings onely vsde.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, ii. ¶ 5. The frauds and underminings, the busie scramblings for little parcels of earth.
1709. [see UNDERGROUND adv. 2].
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxiv. We can’t bear the plotting and undermining that takes place.
1904. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 17 Sept., 638. An undermining of strength that lessens resisting power.
