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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Underpinning

Underpin \Un`der*pin"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Underpinned; p. pr. & vb. n. Underpinning.]

  1. To lay stones, masonry, etc., under, as the sills of a building, on which it is to rest.

  2. To support by some solid foundation; to place something underneath for support.

Underpinning

Underpinning \Un"der*pin`ning\, n.

  1. The act of one who underpins; the act of supporting by stones, masonry, or the like.

  2. (Arch.)

    1. That by which a building is underpinned; the material and construction used for support, introduced beneath a wall already constructed.

    2. The foundation, esp. of a frame house. [Local, U. S.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
underpinning

late 15c., "action of supporting or strengthening from beneath," from under + present participle of pin (v.). Figurative sense of "prop, support" is recorded from 1580s.

Wiktionary
underpinning

n. 1 A support or foundation, especially as a structure of masonry that supports a wall or a metaphorical basis for something. 2 Legs, more generally. vb. (present participle of underpin English)

WordNet
underpinning

See underpin

underpin
  1. v. support from beneath

  2. 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]

  3. [also: underpinning, underpinned]

Wikipedia
Underpinning

In construction or renovation, underpinning is the process of strengthening the foundation of an existing building or other structure. Underpinning may be necessary for a variety of reasons:

  • The original foundation is simply not strong or stable enough.
  • The usage of the structure has changed.
  • The properties of the soil supporting the foundation may have changed (possibly through subsidence) or were mischaracterized during design.
  • The construction of nearby structures necessitates the excavation of soil supporting existing foundations.
  • To increase the depth or load capacity of existing foundations to support the addition of another storey to the building (above or below grade).
  • It is more economical, due to land price or otherwise, to work on the present structure's foundation than to build a new one.
  • Earthquake, flood, drought or other natural causes have caused the structure to move, thereby requiring stabilisation of foundation soils and/or footings.

Underpinning may be accomplished by extending the foundation in depth or in breadth so it either rests on a more supportive soil stratum or distributes its load across a greater area. Use of micropiles and jet grouting are common methods in underpinning. An alternative to underpinning is the strengthening of the soil by the introduction of a grout, including expanding urethane-based engineered structural resins.

Underpinning may be necessary where P class (problem) soils in certain areas of the site are encountered.

Through semantic change the word underpinning has evolved to encompass all abstract concepts that serve as a foundation.

Usage examples of "underpinning".

Brute tabulature might work, if the underpinning translation were preordained, symmetrical.

With the professor fluttering around to fetch and carry and lend an unmuscular hand, he brought in planks and timber and did a very competent job of underpinning the floor above.

Underpinning all of it like the fiscal standard in commercial societies lay a bedrock of depravity and violence where in an egalitarian absolute every man was judged by a single standard and that was his readiness to kill.

The Deutsche cared nothing for those underpinnings, either, so far as Felless could tell.

So for all the major odyssean adventures there is a this-worldly incident as underpinning, taken from the inventory of reports likely to be given by ordinary, unimaginative merchant-pirates of the Mediterranean sea.

There is a mathematical underpinning that you musl first acquire, mastery of each mathematical subdiscipline leading you to the threshold of the next.

The problem for Saddam was that the four assumptions underpinning his grand strategy all turned out to be wrong.

Sorrow, before the turbulent river had been called by that name and before the nuking had upset some of the shifting rocks underpinning the Shens, making the Sorrow the untamed terror it now was.

The bombshell that the Saint had flung at him had knocked the underpinning from the very foundations of his universe.

Lewinsky told confidants of the emotional underpinnings of the relationship as it evolved.

But as he was being pulled out, his rope became caught in an exposed beam whose underpinnings were rotted by time.

I didn't doubt that it could provide an elegant mathematical underpinning to any TOE-but if the first distinct evidence for the theory itself consisted of the rantings of four people suffering from a new and exotic mental disease, that was a slender basis on which to throw out everything I believed about the universe.

It was almost a pity to sell the lad into captivity as a mine worker once they reached Underpinning, but the prince needed the money.

This updated version of the Grail saga made me wonder if equally erotic underpinnings had motived the Grail knights at Montsavat, the castle where Parsifal wound up.

The musical underpinning was more like the Pulp than the Juice, dark and simplistic, full of ominous power chords and evil vamps.