The Collaborative International Dictionary
Underpin \Un`der*pin"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Underpinned; p. pr. & vb. n. Underpinning.]
To lay stones, masonry, etc., under, as the sills of a building, on which it is to rest.
To support by some solid foundation; to place something underneath for support.
Wiktionary
vb. (en-past of: underpin)
WordNet
See underpin
v. support from beneath
support with evidence or authority or make more certain or confirm; "The stories and claims were born out by the evidence" [syn: corroborate, bear out, support]
[also: underpinning, underpinned]
Usage examples of "underpinned".
The base of this pyramid is underpinned by a large reservoir of slave labour.
Ne-Issan's prosperity was based on the concept of firstand second-class citizens, underpinned by a pool of slave labour non-persons.
The principles which underpinned the samurai's code of ethics were discarded.
Someone from the Federation, or the Plainfolk, might view this as a somewhat radical form of protest but it was perfectly comprehensible to someone who embraced bushido, the rigid belief-system which underpinned Iron Master society.
Calandra, I could tell, was still unhappy with both me and the situation, her worrying underpinned by a low-level anger that wasn't showing much sign of subsiding.
The overall sense of the room was concentration, underpinned with tension and controlled nervousness, but there was nothing that seemed to indicate imminent danger.
Money had ceased to be a convenient fiction to be viewed with appropriate ironybecause the computerized financial transactions which flowed from his investments to the network's QIPS providers now underpinned everything he thought, everything he perceived, everything he was.
Money had ceased to be a convenient fiction to be viewed with appropriate irony-because the computerized financial transactions which flowed from his investments to the network's QIPS providers now underpinned everything he thought, everything he perceived, everything he was.
Calton was one of the ancient volcanic plugs that underpinned the city.
That may seem odd to state—but how was I to ask, for instance, about the machinery which underpinned this transforming Floor?
Crude explosives, thrust and counter-thrust, that was all Shavlans were capable of - underpinned, of course, by a web of treachery and espionage.