Word.ws English Dictionary

underpay

underpay verb: to pay (someone) less than the value of their work; to pay (someone) insufficiently.

Verb

underpay (third-person singular simple present underpays, present participle underpaying, simple past and past participle underpaid)

  1. (transitive) To pay (someone) less than the value of their work; to pay (someone) insufficiently.
    • The company-city subgenre always seemed to star a hero who outsmarted, overthrew, or escaped "the company." I've never seen one where the hero fought like hell to get taken in and underpaid by the company.1993, Octavia Butler, chapter 11, in The Parable of the Sower
    • In their Position Paper, respondents averred that they were underpaid their daily wage, overtime work pay and 13th month pay.2020 July 28, Supreme Court of the Philippines, MARBY FOOD VENTURES CORPORATION, MARIO VALDERRAMA, AND EMELITA VALDERRAMA, PETITIONERS, VS. ROLAND DELA CRUZ, GABRIEL DELA CRUZ, JOSE PAULO ANZURES...
  2. (transitive) To pay less than is due for (something).
    • The underpaid letter was returned to the sender.

underpay meaning in Tamil

underpay in Tamil

குறைசம்பளங்கொடு, குறைவாகக்கட்டு

Forms of underpay

third-person singular presentunderpays
present participleunderpaying
past participleunderpaid
pastunderpaid

Past tense of underpay: underpaid

Origin of underpay

From under- + pay.

Words formed from underpay

Questions about underpay

What does underpay mean?
Underpay means to pay (someone) less than the value of their work; to pay (someone) insufficiently.
What is underpay in Tamil?
Underpay in Tamil is குறைசம்பளங்கொடு, குறைவாகக்கட்டு. See Underpay meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is underpay?
Underpay is a verb.
What is the past tense of underpay?
The past tense of underpay is underpaid.

Words near underpay in the dictionary

  1. underpassage
  2. underpassages
  3. underpasses
  4. underpasteurized
  5. underpatronized
  6. underpay
  7. underpayer
  8. underpayers
  9. underpaying
  10. underpayment
  11. underpayments

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underpay (page history and authors); underpay (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-underpay.oga.

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