A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1572, 1640-1675
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Underminer, -myn(d)er, n. [e.m.E. vndermynar (1519), vnderminer (1556), vnderminder (1598); Undermine v.] a. One who undermines, an excavator. b. fig. and and in fig. context. One who works secretly to subvert (something). —a. 1572 Buch. Detect. (1727) 72.
The noyes of the undermyneris wirking and of the bringers in of the powder —b. 1640 Acts V (1817) 303/2.
Discowrageing all … vndermynderis of his … throne 1648 Laing MSS 225.
The great dangers that … the true reformed religioun is in … by malignants … such as are secret disaffecters and undermynders of it ?1655 Fugitive Poetry II xxviii 2/53.
Closs undermynders, never knowne Till walls & works be all upblowen ?c1675 J. Gordon Hist. III 53.
His Majestyes justice may appeare … in discouraging all such undermynders of his throne
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"Underminer n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/underminer>
