underwrite

Verb

underwrite (third-person singular simple present underwrites, present participle underwriting, simple past underwrote or (archaic) underwrit, past participle underwritten or (archaic) underwrit)

1. (transitive) To write below or under; subscribe.
2. (intransitive, obsolete, transitive) To subscribe (a document, policy etc.) with one's name.
3. (transitive) To sign; to put one's name to.
4. (transitive) To agree to pay by signing one's name; subscribe.
5. (transitive) Specifically, to assume financial responsibility for something, and guarantee it against failure.
   • Dr. Beeching's obvious intent is that if Scottish—and similarly unprofitable English and Welsh—railways are to be maintained, it must be done by an unconcealed subsidy; he is determined that the railways shall no longer be preoccupied with—and derided for—immense deficits which include the burden...1962 October, “Talking of Trains: Passed to you, Mr. Macmillan”, in Modern Railways, page 220
6. (intransitive) To act as an underwriter.
   • The broker who procures the insurance […]ought not, by underwriting the policy, to deprive the parties of his unbiased testimony.1810, Samuel Marshall, Of marine insurance
7. (transitive) To support, lend support to, guarantee the basis of.
8. (obsolete, transitive) To submit to; put up with.
   • Diſguiſe the holy ſtrength of their command: / And vnder write in an obſeruing kindec. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...