Word.ws English Dictionary

underweening

underweening noun: undervaluation. Also the present participle and gerund of underween.

Noun

underweening (uncountable)

  1. Undervaluation.
    • Here is forbidden an over or underweening of the good things in our selves,1637, A Short Treatise Contayning all the Principall Grounds of Christian Religion, page 211
    • But the greatest underweening of this life is to undervalue that, unto which this is but Exordial or a Passage leading unto it.1909, Sir Thomas Browne, Religio medici and other writings

Adjective

underweening (comparative more underweening, superlative most underweening)

  1. Extremely modest.
    • It is quite possible Challis may think you have an overweening estimate of foreigners and that a particular foreigner may think that your estimate of him is underweening as compared with his own.1995, James Clerk Maxwell, Elizabeth Garber, Stephen G. Brush, Maxwell on heat and statistical mechanics
    • But when this same, very likable but nebbishy comedian pretends to be that supremely ambitious youth, Phaethon, the tragic ride in the chariot of the Sun-God is reduced from overweening to underweening.1971, New York: Volume 4

Also used as

underweening is also the present participle and gerund of underween.

Examples of underweening in a sentence

  • In fact, if anything, it is an underweening bureaucracy.2010, Rena Steinzor, Sidney Shapiro, The People's Agents and the Battle to Protect the American Public, →ISBN:
  • This newspaper must not become a platform for the overweening to smother the opinions of the underweening.2011, Ellen B. Holzman, Edmund X. DeJesus, Lunch Reads Volume 3: Two Mystery Short Stories, →ISBN:
  • 'That underweening manner', Shrapnel commented, conveyed 'the reverse of modesty'.2013, John Campbell, Edward Heath: A Biography, →ISBN, page 502:

Forms of underweening

comparativemore underweening
superlativemost underweening

Origin of underweening

From underween + -ing.

Questions about underweening

What does underweening mean?
Underweening means undervaluation.
How do you use underweening in a sentence?
In fact, if anything, it is an underweening bureaucracy.
What part of speech is underweening?
Underweening can be a noun or an adjective.

Words near underweening in the dictionary

  1. underwearlessness
  2. underwears
  3. underwebbing
  4. underween
  5. underweened
  6. underweening
  7. underweens
  8. underweigh
  9. underweighs
  10. underweight
  11. underweighted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underweening (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.

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