v. [UNDER-1 4 a, b.]
† 1. trans. To let down (the sails of a ship). Obs.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., XV. 474. Amphinomus in port display’d The ship arrived, her sails then under-stroke.
2. To strike (from) below.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Lady Geraldine’s Courtship, xlvii. For the root of some grave earnest thought is understruck so rightly As [etc.].
Hence Understriking ppl. a.
1880. A. J. Hipkens, in Grove, Dict. Mus., II. 647/1. For understriking grand pianos … and for upright pianos. Ibid., 712/1. Both overstriking and understriking apparatus.
