[UNDER-1 10 a.]
† 1. trans. To depreciate, lower. Obs. rare.
a. 1623. Buck, Rich. III., III. (1646), 90. Dispatching Doctor William Warkam … to under-rate his credit with those Princes.
1649. Lovelace, Poems, 69. He … under-rates himself below mankinde.
2. To assess or tax († lower or) too low.
1641. Rates for Poll-money. Such as are under-rated of what they were in the former Subsidies.
1753. Act 26 Geo. II., c. 17 § 14. As often as they shall find any Person … to have been under-rated.
3. To rate or estimate at too low a value or worth; to undervalue.
1650. E. Williams, Virgo Triumphans, 3. Though Mr. Bullocke be pleased to under-rate it [sc. wheat] at halfe the crowne the bushell.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 272, ¶ 1. [She] so over-valued her self and under-rated all her Pretenders.
1774. T. Jefferson, Autobiog., App., Wks. 1859, I. 126. We do not, however, mean to underrate those aids.
1831. D. E. Williams, Life & Corr. Sir T. Lawrence, II. 393. In the following passage, Sir Thomas … greatly under-rates his own talents.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 337. [They have] underrated the views of their opponents.
refl. 1854. Whately, Common-pl. Bk. (1864), 150. And one condition, I think, of forgiveness is to appear, or at least pretend to underrate yourself.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., x. 246. Helena’s affection prompts her to overrate the man she loves, and to underrate herself.
4. To under-estimate in amount or extent.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 35. He made an interest with his Lord’s Debtors, by under-rating their Accounts.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Th., 348. If we call it one fourth of the whole surface, its extent is certainly not under-rated.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, iii. I had enormously misjudged its distance and underrated its height.
a. 1862. Buckle, Misc. Wks. (1872), I. 358. Nearly every author I have seen, underrates the consumption of wheat in England during the middle ages.
Hence Underrating vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Underratement.
1599. Daniel, Musoph., Wks. (1602), C ij b. Bring not downe the prizes of the minde With vnder-rating of your selues so base.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 76. 1/1. Affront him not by an Under-ratement of his Merits.
1721. E. Erskine, Wks. (1791), 78/1. It implies low and under-rating thoughts of ourselves.
