Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To support or strengthen from beneath.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To gird round the bottom; gird beneath.
Wiktionary
- v. To strengthen, secure, or reinforce by passing a rope, cable, or chain around the underside of an object.
- v. To give fundamental support; provide with a sound or secure basis; provide supportive evidence for.
- v. To lend moral support to.
- v. To secure below or underneath.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To bind below; to gird round the bottom.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make secure underneath
- v. lend moral support to
Etymologies
- From under- + gird. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Many explanations have been suggested for the greater intolerance of more religiously observant people—that they are more likely to see the world in “we/they” or Manichaean terms, for example, or that moral absolutism—a clear distinction between right and wrong—is incompatible with the skeptical outlook that is said to undergird civic tolerance.”
“This past summer, I had the opportunity to spend time with nearly 60 Teach For America corps members taking part in our Foundation's REALITY Israel Experience, a program that enables corps members to travel to Israel to explore the values that undergird their commitment to public service.”
The Huffington Post: Lynn Schusterman: Creating A Jewish Culture Of Inclusivity
“By day, Mr. Mercier the name is a pseudonym is a professor of philosophy in Berlin and has written extensively on the intractable questions that undergird his fiction: Is free will possible?”
The Wall Street Journal: Plot-Driven Epistemological Dilemmas
“A referendum, meanwhile, divorces approval of unpopular tax increases with that of any larger -- and more appealing -- budget compromise that they would undergird, stacking the deck against passage.”
The Washington Post: Stromberg: Wisconsin governor's -- and the GOP's -- strange 'budget discipline'
“Long-range commitment and expertise in state planning laid the groundwork for and continue to undergird today's economic boom.”
The Huffington Post: Jeffrey W. Rubin: The Roots of Brazil's Success
“The United States has a covert program to sabotage the systems that undergird Iran's nuclear facilities.”
The Washington Post: U.S. power plants at risk of attack by computer worm like Stuxnet
“The White House had been working quietly for several days to undergird efforts by the crown prince and a small group of other Bahraini leaders to end the crackdown and begin implementing some of the political and economic changes demanded by protesters, according to two senior administration officials and a former intelligence official familiar with the diplomatic effort.”
The Washington Post: Bahrain unrest: U.S. lobbying effort preceded easing of crackdown on protesters
“Unless progressives cultivate the enlightened virtues they publicly profess and free themselves from the dogmatic beliefs that undergird their political ambitions, we can expect even more harrowing outbursts to come.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Debt Deal and the Progressive Crack-Up
“Although he calls them "nonconformists," he concludes that in important ways they epitomize tradition: Firm believers in the values that undergird a system they hold dear, whether it be a society or a code of professional ethics, they abhor the notion of crime committed in its name.”
“The old paths were created to undergird every century and every life, whether it was someone born back in 33 a.d. or someone born in 2000 a.d.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘undergird’.
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Magooosh
impugn, repudiate, sardonic, barnstorm, bemoan, unseemly, cornerstone, noisome, malodorous, retroactively, spuriously, spasmodically and 217 more...
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Reading Random
Got unknown words randomly
delinquency, modicum, dissuade, incendiary, destitute, lachrymose, plight, ruse, empirical, pedantic, demography, giggle and 444 more...
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New Words
smarmy, purge, linger, shimmer, fiercely, frantically, shove, grunt, errand, clench, wriggle, squeeze and 168 more...
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K List
GRE PREP WORDS
quixotic, autodidact, pundit, ribald, reprisal, liquidity, inoculate, desiccate, inundate, rococo, contemptuous, iconoclast and 156 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate, amalgam and 1781 more...
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Go over
mollify, obstinate, obviate, occlude, onerous, obscure, paragon, pedantic, perfunctory, placate, placid, prodigal and 364 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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GRE(asy) words
slippery on test day.
inveterate, undergird, sanguine, multifarious, enervate, obsequious, incorrigible, ingenuous, obviate, perfidious, taciturn, turpitude and 7 more...
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words I still don't know very well
inured, obviate, perspicacious, truculent, bucolic, anathema, apogee, adumbrate, quotidian, augury, desuetude, desultory and 36 more...
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temporary storage
words which I like but haven't a list for yet.
paresthesias, adjuvant, pathognomonic, prosleptic, enthymeme, acomoclitism, eosinophil, copasetic, atelectasis, heptane, chondroitin, ubidecarenone and 28 more...
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I don't know
Tweets
Looking for tweets for undergird.

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