Definition of "undersong" in English

noun

1. An accompanying sound or strain; an accompaniment.

   • 1926, C. S. Lewis (as Clive Hamilton), Dymer, Canto 4, stanza 1,in Walter Hooper (ed.) Narrative Poems, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979, p. 36, Then the rain; Twelve miles of downward water like one dart, And in one leap were launched along the plain, To break the budding flower and flood the grain, And keep with dripping sound an undersong Amid the wheeling thunder all night long.

2. (figuratively) Subordinate and underlying idea, meaning or atmosphere; undertone.

   • 1916, John Cowper Powys, “Oscar Wilde” in Suspended Judgments, New York: G. Arnold Shaw, p. 410, The mad smouldering lust which gives a sort of under-song of surging passion to the sophisticated sensuality of “Salome” …

3. (obsolete) The burden of a song; the chorus; the refrain.