MEANING
1. A less obvious feeling or influence beneath the dominant mood, sometimes pulling against it.
2. A current beneath breaking waves that flows away from or along the shore.
Use it for
showing regret beneath apparent happiness; describing tension under a calm surface; suggesting an emotional pull a character does not state; distinguishing an underlying feeling from an openly expressed moodSuggests a less visible emotional pull that runs beneath, and may resist, an outward mood. Writing functions: Psychological atmosphere.
Words that belong together
- an undertow of regret
- emotional undertow
- an undertow of unease
On the page
An undertow of resentment ran beneath his careful congratulations.
The scene’s comedy could not quite conceal its undertow of grief.
The undertow tugged at the loose weed beneath the breaking waves.
Beyond the foam, the drifting sand revealed the undertow’s return toward deeper water.
Word forms
- Base
- undertow
Usage notes
Noun: undertow/undertows; often singular with an undertow of regret or the undertow. Physical and figurative senses are distinct. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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