The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subterranean \Sub`ter*ra"ne*an\, Subterraneous \Sub`ter*ra"ne*ous\, a. [L. subterraneus; sub under + terra earth. See Terrace.] Being or lying under the surface of the earth; situated within the earth, or under ground; as, subterranean springs; a subterraneous passage. -- Sub`ter*ra"ne*ous*ly, adv.
Wiktionary
a. subterranean#English.
WordNet
adj. being or operating under the surface of the earth; "subterranean passages"; "a subsurface flow of water" [syn: subterranean]
lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed (especially being kept in the background or deliberately concealed); "subterranean motives for murder"; "looked too closely for an ulterior purpose in all knowledge"- Bertrand Russell [syn: subterranean, ulterior]
Usage examples of "subterraneous".
He therefore returned by the subterraneous gallery, and arrived in time to hear the exclamations of the turnkey, who called out for help.
During their residence at Carthage, he surprised the two lovers in a subterraneous chamber, solitary, warm, and almost naked.
After this fruitless cruelty, the son of Antonina, while his mother feasted with the empress, was buried in her subterraneous prisons, which admitted not the distinction of night and day.
The nature of the soil may indicate the countries most exposed to these formidable concussions, since they are caused by subterraneous fires, and such fires are kindled by the union and fermentation of iron and sulphur.
The deacon Theodosius, with the bishop and clergy, was dragged in chains from the altar to Palermo, cast into a subterraneous dungeon, and exposed to the hourly peril of death or apostasy.
Phrygian marble, and the subterraneous vaults were of a similar construction.
Zingis, the Moguls were informed of the name and manners of the Samoyedes in the neighborhood of the polar circle, who dwelt in subterraneous huts, and derived their furs and their food from the sole occupation of hunting.
Lady Hamilton, like a heroine of modern romance, explored with no little danger a subterraneous passage leading from the palace to the seaside: through this passage the royal treasures, the choicest pieces of painting and sculpture, and other property to the amount of two millions and a half, were conveyed to the shore, and stowed safely on board the English ships.
Crossing himself, as he viewed the dark mass of rolling waters, in colour as in duality unlike those of any other lake, the traveller shuddered as he remembered that beneath these sluggish waves lay the once proud cities of the plain, whose grave was dug by the thunder of the heavens, or the eruption of subterraneous fire, and whose remains were hid, even by that sea which holds no living fish in its bosom, bears no skiff on its surface, and, as if its own dreadful bed were the only fit receptacle for its sullen waters, sends not, like other lakes, a tribute to the ocean.
Indeed, such subterraneous courses of water are found in various parts of our globe.
If, for instance, beneath England the now inert subterraneous forces should exert those powers which most assuredly in former geological ages they have exerted, how completely would the entire condition of the country be changed!
Not when Dorothy has given you to understand that there is a secret subterraneous communication between your apartment and the chapel of St.
There was another subterraneous tug, a juddering as if the earth wanted to slough off the rubbish heaped onto it.
After she was delivered, and the curtains fastened, Peter and myself took the body and carried it to one end of the subterraneous passage, dug a hole in the earth, on one side, and threw it in.
Beatrice silently took the torch, and led the way, along the gallery, down several flights of stairs, and then along numerous vaults and corridors, until they arrived at what appeared the end of these subterraneous passages.