underdrift

From under- +‎ drift.

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underdrift (not comparable)

1. (of a windmill) Having the gearing that turns the millstone beneath the floor.
   • 1979, Martin Brunnarius, The windmills of Sussex, page 11:

     The overdrift method in smock mills may be seen at Punnetts Town, and the underdrift at Shipley.

   • 1996, Richard Leslie Hills, Power from Wind: A History of Windmill Technology, →ISBN, page 298:

     In an overdrift mill this gear is mounted on the quant, in an underdrift mill on the stone spindle.

   • 2011, Stanley Freese, Windmills and Millwrighting, →ISBN, page 110:

     For cleanliness, experienced millers prefer an 'overdrift' mill (as, indeed windmills should be, for lightness and efficiency of driving gears), because underdrift gearing becomes very dirty and clogged with a compound of meal dust and grease, besides being generally inaccessible for repairs and adjustments.

underdrift (plural underdrifts)

1. An underlying meaning that is not made explicit.
   • 1875, Ann Sophia Stephens, Bertha's Engagement, page 348:

     Now, Lydia, looking two ways, seemed to see double, but even she did not discover the subtle underdrift which gave this poem a distinct meaning for two persons.

   • 1903, American Printer and Lithographer - Volume 36, page 446:

     Paris then stands for art, for merriment, for laughter, music and song ; and, forgetting the pathetic underdrifts, we look with eager eyes on the bright examples which reach us from her salons and parlors, ...

   • 1969, David Grene, Aeschylus, page 28:

     Both tragedies are carried on a strong underdrift of sex, but in the second play the sex impulse, though it works, has lost its charm.

   • 1976, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, page 122:

     They articulate a powerful underdrift of covenant theology toward the very ambiguity that provoked Hutchinson to charge Bulkeley and his colleagues with preaching a doctrine of works under the guise of grace.

   • 1985, J. Beer, A Passage to India: Essays in Interpretation, →ISBN, page 65:

     This underdrift, a mode of speech in which the words that constitue conversation are only tenuously connected to a deeper layer, is a significant feature of Indian speech.

2. Synonym of undertow.
   • 1903, Henry Woodward, Geological Magazine, page 13:

     This alone, except the underdrift from breakers, brings new materials to form an original deposit in the sea.

   • 1907, Lindon Wallace Bates, Retrieval at Panama, page 74:

     It was last decided to throw down breakwaters altogether, which lets the wind and the waves riot at their will, save only as dredges may plow furrows through the underdrift, to pass like children's markings on a beach.

   • 1923, Institution of Municipal Engineers (Great Britain), Journal - Volume 50, page 507:

     ...accordingly, the underdrift landwards has not so great a transporting power: wind-effect varies according to its direction, strength, and duration.

   • 1966, David Gill, Men Without Evenings, page 37:

     No doubt the dark blind underdrifts were always at the beck and call of the terrible windlass winding the waters down.

The term underdrift to describe the gearing that drives a millstone is only used when describing windmills. Water-driven mills (those using a waterwheel) are always driven from below, and so, in that context, the term is not needed to distinguish the mechanism from that of an overdrift mill.

• overdrift

under- +‎ drift.

underdrift c

1. understatement

• litotes

• överdrift

• underdriva

• underdrift in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• underdrift in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• underdrift in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)