Underprop v.

[UNDER-¹ 4 a.]

  1.  trans. To support with a prop or props; to keep firm or upright with some form of material support. (Common in 17th c.)

1534.  More, Comf. agst. Trib., I. Wks. 1162/2. Some haue I sene euen in their last sicknes set vp in their death bed vnderpropped with pillous.

1591.  Harington, Orl. Fur., XXVII. lxiv. One took himn napping,… And underprop’t his saddell with foure stakes And so from under him his courser takes.

1637.  Heywood, Pleas. Dial., ii. Wks. 1874, VI. 124. Had you not rather … To see the trees full branches vnderpropt Laden with ripe fruit?

1699.  J. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. xx. II. 161. It was frequent also for Sea-men, underpropping their Ships with their Shoulders, to thrust them forwards into the Sea.

1726.  Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., II. 129. Underprop the Architrave with a strong arch.

1810.  Crabbe, Borough, xi. 109. A mirror crack’d, With table underpropp’d, and chairs new-back’d.

1851.  C. L. Smith, trans. Tasso, XI. lxxxv. They who guided it their force applied To underprop it.

  b.  In fig. context.

1532.  More, Confut. Tindale, III. Wks. 473/1. But Tyndall perceiuing … howe fieble hys building is that he setteth therupon, hath therfore … vndershoren, & vnderpropped it with certayn strong postes made of rotten redes.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 34 b. Our deepe Devine doth underproppe his lazie Monckerie upon these pillars.

1633.  T. Stafford, Pac. Hib. (1821), I. xi. 75. The effect thereof was, to implore ayde of that Egyptian Reed, to underprop their ruinous and almost rotten Building.

1645.  Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith, 23. This doctrine is a … Pillar, to under prop the Chamber in Hell, which they call Purgatory.

  2.  fig. To support or sustain; to maintain. (Very common c. 1550–1675.)

1513.  More, Rich. III., Wks. 39/1. Childehood must be maintained by mens authoritye, & slipper youth vnderpropped with elder counsayle.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., III. 255. To vnderprop and strengthen this faith with y^e signes of the good wil of God towarde it selfe.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 53. Within whose face Beautie and Vertue striued, Which of them both should vnderprop her fame.

1647.  Digges, Unlawf. Taking Arms, § 2. 22. This art … of underpropping their reputation.

1695.  Blackmore, Pr. Arth., VI. 360. He could th’ unstable People’s Tumults stop, And a declining Kingdom underprop.

1738.  Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 47. He thought fit to underprop it with his earthly God, the Leviathan.

1773.  Berridge, Chr. World Unmasked (1805), 199. Moses is called in hastily to underprop his master Jesus.

1827.  Pollok, Course T., V. 882. Leagues … on purpose made to underprop Iniquity, and crush the sacred truth.

1849.  Thoreau, Week Concord River, Wedn. 300. Let such pure hate still underprop our love.

  refl.  1571.  Golding, Calvin on Ps. iii. 3. Assone as he hath underpropped himselfe with assurance of comfort.

  absol.  1596.  Edward III., III. v. 78. Yet marble courage still did vnderprop.

  3.  To form a prop or support to (something).

c. 1590.  Marlowe, Faustus, vii. 32. Know that this Citie stands vpon seuen hilles That vnderprops the groundworke of the same.

a. 1661.  Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 56. He had yet forsooth a statue or two, particularly one of Cheiron, which underpropp’d his table.

1672.  Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 133. There is nothing more natural than for the Ivy to be of opinion … that the Church cannot hold up longer than It underprops the Walls.

1794.  G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., III. xxxi. 261. One considerable use of the wedge, is to raise up the beam of a house, to underprop it, when a floor gives way.

1830.  Tennyson, Arab. Nts., 145. Six columns … underpropt a rich Throne of the massive ore.

1836.  Buckland, Geol. & Min., xv. § 5 (1837), I. 360. The transverse plates … underpropping their flattest and weakest part.

  Hence Underpropped, -propping ppl. adjs.

a. 1614.  D. Dyke, Myst. Self-Deceiving, 45. There is no sinne, but we may … fall into, if Gods vnderpropping hand withdraw it selfe.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., I. 6. O heauy vnder-prop’d wrongs.

1655.  Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. vi. § 1. The old underpropped Scaffolds overladen with people, suddenly fell down.