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Definition
be or form the base for;or: lie underneath
- But the principal, underlying cause was that, as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, human equality had become technically possible.George Orwell -- 1984
underlying = that is the basic (cause)
- There lay another of those pieces of pink squareness that underlay the structure of the island.William Golding -- Lord of the Flies
- I stopped for a long time to let my nerves settle, then leaned back from my tools and stared up at the face above, searching for a hint of solid ice, for some variation in the underlying rock strata, for anything that would allow passage over the frosted slabs.Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild
- You could grasp the mechanics of the Society you lived in, but not its underlying motives.George Orwell -- 1984
- This is the underlying discovery of Noetic Science.Dan Brown -- The Lost Symbol
- [Pulling himself together for a great effort, and showing the philosopher that underlies the dandy.Oscar Wilde -- An Ideal Husband
- What you don't know— and she does— is that you have to shade the truth to get at the real truth, the underlying truth.Robert A. Heinlein -- Tunnel In the Sky
- There was an underlying consciousness all the while that he should have to master this anger, and tell her everything, and convince her of the facts.George Eliot -- Middlemarch
- It should be grudging, with underlying urgency.J.D. Robb -- Glory in Death
- In both words the underlying idea is that of a body of men united by an oath.Nicolo Machiavelli -- The Prince
- And maybe it's because of that underlying goodness that he can move a crowd—no, a country—to his side with the turn of a simple sentence.Suzanne Collins -- Catching Fire
- Put the other way round, our attention would have been held even more effectively had there been an underlying pull of simple narrative.Ian McEwan -- Atonement
- Levin saw that there was an idea underlying this question with which he did not agree.Leo Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina
- The underlying sense of what's presented these days is that this country has difference that ails rather than strengthens and enriches.Chang-rae Lee -- Native Speaker
- There is a simple network of wide tunnels that directly corresponds to the main street plan above, underlying the major avenues and cross streets.Suzanne Collins -- Mockingjay
- Disoriented and confused though she may be, she is exerting all her strength to comprehend the logic underlying this place-the basis of its existence.Haruki Murakami -- After Dark
- It took me a long time but I soon became aware of an underlying, pervasive fixation for violence among the people of the island.Pat Conroy -- The Water is Wide
- The underlying notion was, "It disgraces me to have been mentioned in connection with such a hag."E.M. Forster -- A Passage to India
- Underlying it all, a faint shimmer of silver that would reflect the light, magnify it.Stephenie Meyer -- The Host
- Maybe in the end the facts are not as important as the underlying truth she wants to convey.Christina Garcia -- Dreaming in Cuban
underlay = form the base of
underlying = below the surface
underlying = causing
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