Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. In a lower place; below.
- adv. Underneath.
- prep. Lower than; below: a drawer beneath a cabinet.
- prep. To or into a lower position than: moved the picture beneath the light.
- prep. Covered or concealed by: The earth lay beneath a blanket of snow.
- prep. Under the force, control, or influence of.
- prep. Lower than, as in rank or station.
- prep. Unworthy of; unbefitting: It was beneath me to beg.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In a lower place, position, or state, literally or figuratively.
- Below, as opposed to on high, or in heaven or other superior region.
- Below; under: with reference to what is overhead or towers aloft: as, beneath the same roof.
- Underneath, whether in immediate contact with the under side of, or further down than; lower in place than: as, to place a cushion beneath one; beneath one's feet; beneath the surface: sometimes with verbs of motion: as, he sank beneath the wave.
- Under the weight or pressure of; under the action or influence of: as, to sink beneath a burden.
- Lower than, in rank, dignity, degree, or excellence; below: as, brutes are beneath man; man is beneath the angels.
- Unworthy of; unbecoming; not equal to; below the level of: as, beneath contempt.
- Synonyms Under, etc. See below.
- Lower.
Wiktionary
- adv. below or underneath
- prep. below
- prep. to a lower position
- prep. covered up or concealed by something
GNU Webster's 1913
- prep. Lower in place, with something directly over or on; under; underneath; hence, at the foot of.
- prep. Under, in relation to something that is superior, or that oppresses or burdens.
- prep. Lower in rank, dignity, or excellence than. Hence: Unworthy of; unbecoming.
- adv. In a lower place; underneath.
- adv. Below, as opposed to heaven, or to any superior region or position.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. in or to a place that is lower
Etymologies
- From Middle English benethe, from Old English beneoþan ("beneath, under, below"), from Proto-Germanic *bī-niþana (“below”), from Proto-Indo-European *ni-, *nei- (“in, under”). Cognate with Low German benedden ("beneath"), Dutch beneden ("beneath, under, down"), German benieden ("below"). Compare also Danish neden ("below"), Swedish and Icelandic nedan ("below, under"). See also nether. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English binethe, from Old English beneothan : be, by; see by1 + neothan, below. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And: If cleaning isn't beneath me, it isn't beneath you.”
“Red above, and blue beneath, with the distinguishing pennant _beneath_, make”
“Sorcha whispered his name beneath the mangled concrete and metal, her eyes glassy with pain.”
“Pulling the paper free, Carla glanced down at a set of DVDs, the cover showing a cheap Xeroxed image of a man holding a gun to a woman's head, then laughed as she recognized the title beneath — a TV series she'd worked on.”
“He opened the volume and read, with a questioning inflection, the title beneath his eyes, "'The Cranes of Ibycus'?”
“Walking home one night, she saw smashed beer bottles in the street, pieces of glass held together by the adhesive of the label beneath them.”
“I went to the Indigo bookstore this weekend and I bought this cool book that teaches you Italian through sticky notes - there are 303 sticky notes with colourful, simple pictures and the Italian word beneath it.”
“She's also Rebecca Romjin beneath all of that makeup.”
“I climbed down and sat beside him, wrapping my arms around his hunched body, so thin beneath the new boy-muscle, and I kissed his hair, and I told him that it was okay to cry because everyone was sad sometimes, because I knew that someone had died.”
“Jon's dragon coils from his lower back to his shoulders and in its claws clutches a scroll with what looks like his children's birthdates with their names in Korean beneath the numbers.”
The Huffington Post: Jon Gosselin Tattoo: HUGE Dragon Symbolizing His Rebirth
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘beneath’.
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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Neat
neaten, beneath, underneath, neatherd, delineate, lineation, neath, neat's-foot oil, cuneate, uneaten, enneatic, neatnik and 20 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 175 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Belistful
Tubey or not tubey.
belittle, bedazzle, besiege, besmirch, bespeckle, beget, bemoan, befuddle, befriend, become, besot, becloud and 596 more...
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hard to sense
somewhat, somewhere, elsewhere, whereby, likewise, spite, ever, along, otherwise, whatever, whichever, hitherto and 116 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Reading Class
weak, grumble, grudgingly, lingered, beneath, prideful, arrogant, prosperity, servant, merchant, scorned
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Anglo-Saxon
...or otherwise early Germanic.
storm, scorn, nincompoop, thrice, clave, clove, slain, onslaught, hew, breadth, hussy, pelt and 57 more...
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now-positions
without prepping
for, to, from, toward, in, through, with, on, against, into, at, by and 48 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for beneath.
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