Adjective
Having the gearing that turns the millstone beneath the floor.
Usage- not-comparable
- of a windmill
- Examples
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The overdrift method in smock mills may be seen at Punnetts Town, and the underdrift at Shipley.
In an overdrift mill this gear is mounted on the quant, in an underdrift mill on the stone spindle.
More examples (1)
For cleanliness, experienced millers prefer an 'overdrift' mill (as, indeed windmills should be, for lightness and efficiency of driving gears), because underdrift gearing becomes very dirty and clogged with a compound of meal dust and grease, besides being generally inaccessible for repairs and adjustments.
Noun
An underlying meaning that is not made explicit.
- Examples
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Now, Lydia, looking two ways, seemed to see double, but even she did not discover the subtle underdrift which gave this poem a distinct meaning for two persons.
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Paris then stands for art, for merriment, for laughter, music and song ; and, forgetting the pathetic underdrifts, we look with eager eyes on the bright examples which reach us from her salons and parlors, ...
Both tragedies are carried on a strong underdrift of sex, but in the second play the sex impulse, though it works, has lost its charm.
More examples (2)
They articulate a powerful underdrift of covenant theology toward the very ambiguity that provoked Hutchinson to charge Bulkeley and his colleagues with preaching a doctrine of works under the guise of grace.
This underdrift, a mode of speech in which the words that constitue conversation are only tenuously connected to a deeper layer, is a significant feature of Indian speech.
Synonym of undertow.
- Examples
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This alone, except the underdrift from breakers, brings new materials to form an original deposit in the sea.
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It was last decided to throw down breakwaters altogether, which lets the wind and the waves riot at their will, save only as dredges may plow furrows through the underdrift, to pass like children's markings on a beach.
...accordingly, the underdrift landwards has not so great a transporting power: wind-effect varies according to its direction, strength, and duration.
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No doubt the dark blind underdrifts were always at the beck and call of the terrible windlass winding the waters down.