subterrains

Noun

subterrain (countable and uncountable, plural subterrains)

1. The bedrock or rock layer that lies beneath the soil and superficial features of an area.
   • In this way at least a crude picture of the subterrain can be built up during the survey.1982, The Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
2. A cave or underground room.
   • Subterrains have been found in almost all the nations of antiquity; but philosophers have put themselves to little trouble to discover the motives for making these excavations, which were much varied in their forms.1833, John Billington, The Architectural Director: Being an Approved Guide to Architects
3. An underground region.
   • The land under Rabbit seems to move, with the addition of yet another citizen to the subterrain of the dead.2006, John Updike, Rabbit is Rich, →ISBN
4. An underlying basis or undercurrent.
   • The roots of the misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Semitism that indelibly mark Modernism are to be found in the subterrain of changing sexual and political mores that constituted belle époque Faubourg society, and it is here that the story of these women begins — in Edith Wharton's drawing room.1986, Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940, page ix

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