undercutting

Verb

undercut (third-person singular simple present undercuts, present participle undercutting, simple past and past participle undercut)

1. To sell (something) at a lower price, or to work for lower wages, than a competitor.
   • The fact that, to cover low tariffs on bulk commodities, the railways have to charge very high rates on high-value goods, such as manufactures, has provided road operators with a golden opportunity to undercut the railway.1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 555

   Synonyms:

   undersell

2. To create an overhang by cutting away material from underneath.
3. To undermine.
   • Though Bane’s sing-song voice gives his pronouncements a funny lilt, he doesn’t have any of the Joker’s deranged wit, and Nolan isn’t interested in undercutting his seriousness for the sake of a breezier entertainment.2012 July 18, Scott Tobias, “The Dark Knight Rises”, in AV Club
4. To strike a heavy blow upward.
5. To employ the undercut strategy.
6. To downplay or minimize.
   • This was a very generous way of describing the swarm of cables, kit-bashed thaumatic cores, Noogenic foci and para-technological inverters, all surrounded by an astoundingly complex cognitohazardous sigil and multiple ontological anchors. This, simultaneously, simplified the interdisciplinary...2025 February 4, Queerious, “Don't Let Them Forget”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 28 Feb 2025

See all 17 meanings of undercut