UNDERPINNING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Underpinning

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noun

Underpinning n.

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

(Arch.)

(a)

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

(b)

The foundation, esp. of a frame house. (Local, U. S.)

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Etymology of 'Underpinning'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Underpinning" Quotes from Famous Books

... or cry to God that we are not a superficial people, that the American people will not be put off with a candy victory, all sugar and hurrahs and tears and empty watery words—that we will chase Peace up, that we will work Victory down into the structure of all nations—into the eternal underpinning of ...

— The Ghost in the White House • Gerald Stanley Lee

... little bit of journalistic "enterprise" the ICONOCLAST put a kibosh also, much to the satisfaction of every decent family in Harris county. Now the fecular sheet has found a new road to infamy—is advertising garters fit only to adorn the crummy underpinning of negro prostitutes. It does seem that the Post will do anything for a dollar— except be decent. Owing to the mental perversity of its management, respectability is for it impossible. It is a social leper, a journalistic pariah. It is devoid of political ...

— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... Here we can only call attention to the fact that Starcke sought the idealism of Feuerbach in the wrong place. "Feuerbach is an idealist; he believes in the advance of mankind" (p. 19). "The foundations, the underpinning of the whole, is therefore nothing less than idealism. Realism is for us nothing more than a protection against error while we follow our own idealistic tendencies. Are not compassion, love and enthusiasm for truth ...

— Feuerbach: The roots of the socialist philosophy • Frederick Engels

... and was preparing to build a more comfortable residence, but in the meantime I lived in the house which had been occupied by the different overseers for about seventy-five years. Its accommodations were very limited, simple, and it was much out of repair. Owing to the settling of the underpinning in the centre, it had assumed a "sway- backed" outline, which gave it the name of the "broken-back house." No repairs had been attempted, as I was preparing to build a ...

— Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee • Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son