[UNDER-1 6 a.] A tenant holding land or premises from another tenant; a subtenant.
1546. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 185. Yf the undertenant be honest. Ibid. (1582), 422. Undertenants commonly called inmakes.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. 276. To settle and secure the Under-Tenannts; to the End, there may be a repose and establishment of euery Subiects Estate; Lord and Tenant.
1666. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 23. The said Henry and his undertenants had been in peaceable possession thereof for four yeares.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 3990/4. The Manor of Lizard,… in the Possession of George Caning Esq., or his Under-Tenants.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. viii. 123. A third incident to estates for life relates to the under-tenants or lessees.
1804. Mar. Edgeworth, Ennui, v[iii]. These fellows, these middle-men, will underset the land, and live in idleness, whilst they rack a parcel of wretched under-tenants.
1872. Froude, Short Stud. (1878), II. 556. He had no intention that the under-tenant should be protected against himself.
transf. 1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, X. v. ¶ 7. They … exalted him to a level with the under-tenants of Olympus.
