Word.ws English Dictionary

under the hood

under the hood prepositional phrase: beneath the surface; in the internal workings.

under the hood: beneath the surface; in the internal workings
Image: Panamitsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Prepositional phrase

  1. (figuratively) Beneath the surface; in the internal workings.
    • Internet search engines are easy to use, but there's a lot going on under the hood.
    • Under the hood, Mosaic is primitive by today's standards, but it's design is recognizable. Sure, it's all black, white and gray with flat buttons, but it would take absolutely no time to adjust to it.2010 September 2, Niraj Chokshi, “The Stagnant History of the Browser Interface: A Retrospective”, in The Atlantic
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see under, the, hood: beneath the bonnet (of a car or truck).
    • She's got whitewall tires and suicide doors / Under the hood, got a four-fifty-four / Well, they don't make 'em like that no more / Not since nineteen seventy-four / Big cars / Yeah, I like big cars2002, Heather Myles, “Big Cars”, in Sweet Talk and Good Lies, performed by Heather Myles

Synonyms of under the hood

Origin of under the hood

The figurative sense is extended from the literal sense via metaphor.

Questions about under the hood

What does under the hood mean?
Under the hood means beneath the surface; in the internal workings.
What part of speech is under the hood?
Under the hood is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under the hood in the dictionary

  1. under the counter
  2. under the covers
  3. under the fist of
  4. under the gun
  5. under the hammer
  6. under the hood
  7. under the illusion
  8. under the impression
  9. under the influence
  10. under the jail
  11. under the knife

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under the hood (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “under the hood.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/under_the_hood. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.