understorey

Noun

understory (plural understories or (rare) understorys)

1. (US, also, dated, figuratively) A story of a building below the stories generally used for residence or work.
   • On the Vnder Story, tovvards the Garden, Let it be turned to a Grotta, or Place of Shade, or Eſtiuation.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Building. XLV.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 263
2. (US, also, attributive) The (layer of) plants that grow in the shade of the canopy of a forest above the forest floor.
   • Throughout the pre-European tussock grassland, and more especially in gullies, on terrace edges and wherever the surface configuration of the plains was broken, woody plants occurred, including occasionally surviving residues of podocarp forest understoreys.1971, Kenneth B[railey] Cumberland, “Climatic Change or Cultural Interference? New Zealand in Moahunter Times”, in S. R. Eyre, editor, World Vegetation Types (Geographical Readings), London: Palgrave...

   Synonyms:

   underbrush, undergrowth

   Antonyms:

   overstorey, overstory