v. [UNDER-1 4 a. Cf. Flem. ondergorden ‘subcingere’ (Kilian).] trans. To secure or fasten from the under-side, as by a rope or chain passed underneath.
In actual use chiefly in renderings or echoes of Acts xxvii. 17. ὑποζωννύντες τὸ πλοῖον.
1526. Tindale, Acts xxvii. 17. We … had moche worke to come by a boote, which they toke vppe, and vsed helppe vndergerdynge the shippe.
1611. Florio, Soccingere, to vnder-guirt, or guird.
1702. Echard, Eccl. Hist. (1710), 325. They undergirt the ship to secure it from splitting.
1857. Dufferin, Let. High Lat., 20. By undergirding the ship with chains, St. Paul fashion, the leaks were partially stopped.
fig. 1848. H. Rogers, Ess. (1874), I. vi. 292. The infirmity of human nature requires to be ‘undergirded’ by all sorts of supports.
1874. Holland, Mistr. Manse, 3. Its fragments build and undergird The songs and stories we rehearse.
Hence Undergirding vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1868. H. Bushnell, Serm. Living Subj. (1872), 218. That which is the undergirding import and reality of second death.
1895. Advance (Chicago), 17 Oct., 546/2. The preacher himself needs them … for the undergirding of his own convictions.
