Fromunder- +tow.
undertow (third-person singular simple presentundertows,present participleundertowing,simple past and past participleundertowed)
- (transitive) Topull ortow under;drag beneath; pull down.
1914, Denton Jaques Snider,Lincoln at Richmond:Off in a gallop the General wheeled vanishing, And sped his steed away into the blue, When Lineoln now alone let go his speech Which had before beenundertowed by force, [...]
- (transitive) To pull down by, or as by, an undertow.
1998, Richard Gough, David Williams, Ric Allsopp,Performance Research: On Place:A sense that the air, a sighting of muddy river, or that outcrop of rock so implacably bland in the light of midday, isundertowed by memory.
2003, Michael T. Leibig,Mike Leibig Traveling in Disguise:I sink because I cannot swim,undertowed to the Centre, abandoning all remembrance of the surface toward the cloud of unknowing, without choice I'm pulled.
- (intransitive) Toflow orbehave as an undertow.
1917,The Unpopular review:Everybody knows this and acts accordingly; but when yousay it, it sounds bad and bold, and makes you uncomfortable to hear it, because the puritan blood is stillundertowing in your veins.
undertow (pluralundertows)
- A short-rangeflow ofwater returningseaward from the waves breaking on theshore.
A strongundertow may sweep a returning swimmer off their feet but it does not carry them far from the shore.
- (by extension) Afeeling that runscontrary to one's normal one.
