Undercut

How to spell undercut

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce undercut

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does undercut mean?

1. verbTo sell goods or offer services at a lower price than a competitor in order to win business.
2. verbTo weaken or reduce the effectiveness of something, such as an argument, position, or effort.
3. nounA hairstyle in which the hair underneath is clipped short while a longer layer is left on top.

Undercut in a sentence

• verb

  The new supplier promised to undercut every quote we received.

• verb

  His sarcastic tone began to undercut the seriousness of the report.

• noun

  The barber gave him a sharp undercut with the sides shaved close.

• verb

  Discount chains routinely undercut the corner shops on basic groceries.

• verb

  Leaking the figures early could undercut the whole negotiation.

• noun

  She asked for an undercut to keep the heavy hair off her neck.

Where does undercut come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound built from two old English elements: the prefix under-, an ancestral Germanic word meaning 'below' or 'beneath', and cut, a verb of uncertain but likely Scandinavian origin that has meant 'to make an incision' since the medieval period. The literal sense, to cut away the part underneath something, is the oldest, used by carpenters and miners describing a notch carved below a face of timber or coal. From that physical idea grew the figurative commercial meaning that emerged in the 1800s: to sell more cheaply than a rival, as if cutting the ground out from beneath their prices. The same image of removing support underneath gives us the modern sense of weakening or undermining an argument or effort. Because both halves are plain native words, the spelling is regular, and the only thing to remember is that it is written as one solid word, not hyphenated.

How the word is built

• under- (below, beneath)
• cut (from Old English cuttan, to cut)