1. A lower part or portion.
1662. Wase, Lat. Dict., Subtundo, to knock, or beat the under-part of any thing.
1731. P. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Leaves, Their Leaves … have shot out young Plants from their under-Parts.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 394/2. From the upper part of the lower deck to the under part of the main rail.
1825. Jamieson, Fair-grass,… said to be [so] denominated from the whiteness of the under part of the leaf.
b. spec. A part of the under-side of the body (of a bird or animal).
1783. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, II. 362. The under parts wholly white.
1815. Stephens in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. I. 21. The rest of the under parts dirty yellow.
1873. J. E. Taylor, Half-hours in Green Lanes, iv. 126. You could see their … black breasts and white underparts.
2. A subordinate part in action, esp. a minor rôle in a play; one who acts a subordinate part.
1679. Dryden, Troilus & Cress., Pref. ¶ 20. Making Œdipus the best and bravest person, and even Jocasta but an under-part to him. Ibid. (1693), Juvenal (1697), p. lxxix. In the famous Pastoral of Guarini,… where Corisca and the Satyre are the Under-parts.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 7, ¶ 1. My Friend, I found, acted but an under Part at his Table.
1746. Francis, trans. Hor. Sat. I. ix. 98. You should have a Man of Art; One who might act an under-part.
1780. J. Berington, State Eng. Catholics, 66. Plot was set up against plot, all of them under-parts of the same grand drama.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 490. The kidneys play merely an under-part, and are only secondarily affected.
3. A subordinate part or portion; a subdivision.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., III. 113. Our religious Pastors … have quitted their substantial Service, and uniform Division into Parts and Under-Parts.
1715. Pope, Iliad, Pref. ¶ 9. Nor is this … only in the principal Quality which constitutes the Main of each Character, but even in the Under-parts of it.
