undertow

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To pull or tow under

   To pull or tow under; drag beneath; pull down.

   • 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 been undertowed by force, [...]
2. 2

   To pull down by, or as by, an undertow.

   • A sense that the air, a sighting of muddy river, or that outcrop of rock so implacably bland in the light of midday, is undertowed by memory.
   • 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.
3. 3

   To flow or behave as an undertow.

   • Everybody knows this and acts accordingly; but when you say it, it sounds bad and bold, and makes you uncomfortable to hear it, because the puritan blood is still undertowing in your veins.
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A short-range flow of water returning seaward from the waves breaking on the shore.

      • A strong undertow may sweep a returning swimmer off their feet but it does not carry them far from the shore.
   2. 5

      A feeling that runs contrary to one's normal one.

The neighborhood

• neighborrip current
• neighborriptide
• neighborundersuck