undercrafts

Noun (1)

undercraft (usually uncountable, plural undercrafts)

1. (obsolete, usually) A sly trick, or subterfuge in general.
   • Not that by any analysis , -or that from any table of interest or genealogy , there appears much more ground of alliance betwixt them than betwixt light and darkness , or any two of the most unfriendly opposites in nature ; - only 'tis an undercraft of authors to keep up a good understanding...1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […]
2. (archaic, usually) Witchcraft or sorcery.
   • Under-craft, witchcraft, call it what you will, but it is indeed poisonous.2008, John Dickinson, The Fatal Child
3. (usually) An apprentice or journeyman.
   • These principles are to organize the undercrafts for justice and humanity, for better wages and diminished poverty, the reduction of hours of toil and the abolishment of Sunday slavery in so far as possible.1925, The Journeyman Barber, volume 21, page 426

Noun (2)

undercraft (plural undercrafts)

1. (dated) A submarine.
   • But effective as mine-fields and cable nettings may be against hostile "undercraft" – as in the case of the channel where not a single troop-ship or supply-ship has yet been lost – they can be said to be only a deterrent, little more.1916 January, Robert Wilden Neeser, “The Submarine in War”, in Scribner's Magazine, volume 59, number 1, page 43
2. (historical) An underground crypt.
   • His Body was first buried in the Undercraft of his own Cathedral-Church, whence, shortly after, it was taken up, put into a goodly Shrine beset with costly Jewels and precious Stones, and plac'd at the East end of the same Church.1708, Richard Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, page 552

See all 8 meanings of undercraft