| / English Dictionary |
SUBTERRANEAN
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed (especially being kept in the background or deliberately concealed)
Example:
looked too closely for an ulterior purpose in all knowledge
Synonyms:
subterranean; subterraneous; ulterior
Classified under:
Similar:
covert (secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Being or operating under the surface of the earth
Example:
a subsurface flow of water
Synonyms:
subterranean; subterraneous
Classified under:
Similar:
subsurface (beneath the surface)
Context examples:
To obtain information on the status of bat colonies, biologists visit subterranean habitats where bats hibernate during winter—caves, mines, old war bunkers, anywhere that's dark, cool, moist and protected from harsh winds and freezing temperatures.
(Hibernation season over, will disease-ridden bats emerge from caves and mines this spring?, NSF)
Not to lengthen these particulars, I need only add, that she made a handsome provision for all my possible wants during my month of trial; that Steerforth, to my great disappointment and hers too, did not make his appearance before she went away; that I saw her safely seated in the Dover coach, exulting in the coming discomfiture of the vagrant donkeys, with Janet at her side; and that when the coach was gone, I turned my face to the Adelphi, pondering on the old days when I used to roam about its subterranean arches, and on the happy changes which had brought me to the surface.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
In subterranean environments on Earth called subsurface lithotrophic microbial ecosystems, or SLiMEs, ecosystems sustain themselves not on plants that harness sunlight through photosynthesis but on microbes that harvest electrons from nearby molecules.
(Study suggests Mars hosted life-sustaining habitat for millions of years, Wikinews)
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