Word
undercut
Phoneticsun·der·cut
/ˈəndɝˌkət/
Definition
v. to sell something at a lower price than your competitors. You can also use it to describe making someone's position or argument weaker.
v. to offer goods or services at a lower price than a competitor; by extension, to weaken or destabilise a person, position, or argument. Transitive — requires a direct object.
Examples
“The new supermarket tries to undercut the local shops.”
“By lowering their subscription fees, the startup managed to undercut the established market leaders and gain thousands of users.”
“The witness's sudden admission of a prior friendship with the defendant served to undercut the prosecution's entire theory of a random, unprovoked attack.”
Examples
simple
“The new supermarket tries to undercut the local shops.”
contextual
“By lowering their subscription fees, the startup managed to undercut the established market leaders and gain thousands of users.”
complex
“The witness's sudden admission of a prior friendship with the defendant served to undercut the prosecution's entire theory of a random, unprovoked attack.”
Usage
The verb is transitive and takes a direct object.
Pitfall
They undercutted the price.
They undercut the price.
The past tense and past participle of 'undercut' is 'undercut', not 'undercutted'.
Real-World Examples
“New Boman is always cause for celebration, not least when it’s seven delicious minutes of ribboning, swirling synth trills undercut by a beat as fine and spangly as tinsel fronds.” “Moon/Morpurgo navigates all this with frenetic energy on stage and on an upstage screen, where images from the yearbook (with DIY animation and voiceovers attached) accompany or undercut the narrative to droll effect.” Etymology
From Middle English undercutten, equivalent to under- + cut.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/undercut