underrun

underrun noun: a condition in which fewer products are delivered or produced than had been ordered.

Noun

underrun (plural underruns)

A condition in which fewer products are delivered or produced than had been ordered.
A condition in which the read/write buffer is fed with data at a slower rate than required; a buffer underrun.

underrun (third-person singular simple present underruns, present participle underrunning, simple past underran, past participle underrun)

To run or pass under.
- He spoke fast, with the uneasy tone that so often underran his words.1904, Katherine Cecil Thurston, The Masquerader, page 26
To pass along and under, e.g. a cable, for the purpose of taking it in or examining it.
To separate the parts of (a tackle) and put them in order.

Noun
plural	underruns
Verb
third-person singular present	underruns
present participle	underrunning
past	underran
past participle	underrun

From under- + run.

What does underrun mean?: Underrun means a condition in which fewer products are delivered or produced than had been ordered.
What part of speech is underrun?: Underrun can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of underrun?: The plural of underrun is underruns.

Adapted from Wiktionary: underrun (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underrun.wav.

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