[UNDER-1 10 a.]
1. trans. To estimate at too low an amount, quantity, number, etc.
1812. Q. Rev., VIII. 329. He states the annual consumption … at … from three to four hundred, evidently with no disposition to under-estimate the amount.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 24. [He] seems to have greatly under-estimated the height.
2. To rate or rank too low; to undervalue.
a. 1850. Calhoun, Wks. (1874), I. 73. It is not my aim … to underestimate the great power and influence [of the press].
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 96. Exactly as St. James neither ignores nor underestimates faith, so neither does St. Paul ignore nor underestimate the value … of good works.
Hence Under-estimation.
1881. E. C. Stedman, Poe, 66. That he lacked sustained power of invention is proved, not by his failure to complete an extended work, but by his under-estimation of its value.
