Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To make too low an estimate of the quantity, degree, or worth of.
- transitive verb To consider (someone) to be less capable or effective than is actually the case.
- noun An estimate that is or proves to be too low.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To estimate at too low a rate; not to value sufficiently.
- noun An estimate or valuing at too low a rate.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To set too low a value on; to estimate below the truth.
- noun The act of underestimating; too low an estimate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
perceive (someone or something) as having alower value ,quantity ,worth etc. than what it actually has. - noun An
estimate orperception that is toolow .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an estimation that is too low; an estimate that is less than the true or actual value
- verb make a deliberately low estimate
- verb assign too low a value to
- verb make too low an estimate of
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One point you may underestimate is how deeply liberals believe that rich-getting-richer really is hurting the middle class and how the middle class, too, is deserving of lots of social help — if not total egalitarian-type redistribution.
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This is crucial, because it shows that the leaders again underestimate the intelligence of the people, including their moderate supporters.
Think Progress » Most Americans doubt Bush’s ethics and honesty 2005
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That works out to just over $8/gal to generate $800 billion/yr in revenue in the very short term, but a long-term underestimate given that an $8/gal tax would lower demand considerably.
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We "underestimate" the brick-and-mortar bookshop, not overestimate it.
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But for BAA to "underestimate" the time it takes to deice a stand...
UK snow chaos: some make it home, but thousands still stranded 2010
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Look, I'm not trying to "underestimate" Obama -- I'm perfectly well aware that my comments here are hardly going to determine the spin in this race.
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"People kind of underestimate the risks involved in some of these [green-tech] companies," said Neil Rimer,
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How the HELL do you "underestimate" the "power" of a dozen NCs and their leaders, none of which can break out of the sub-1 percent club, in terms of stakeholder voting and participation.
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Junior Apprentice candidates not to "underestimate" her.
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The authors of the study urge fellow Germans not to "underestimate" right-wing sentiment.
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