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What is the difference between liable and underlie?

liable | underlie |

As a adjective liable

is bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.

As a verb underlie is

to lie in a position directly beneath.

liable

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.
    • The surety is liable for the debt of his principal.
  • * 1748 . David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 34.
    • The passion for philosophy, like that for religion, seems liable to this inconvenience
  • Exposed to a certain contingency or casualty, more or less probable.
  • Likely.
    • Someone is liable to slip on your icy sidewalk.

    Related terms

    * liability * reliable

    Anagrams

    * * *

    underlie

    English

    Alternative forms

    * underly

    Verb

  • To lie in a position directly beneath.
    • A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.
  • To lie under or beneath.
  • To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.
    • a doctrine underlying a theory
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz
    • , title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
  • To be subject to; be liable to answer, as a charge or challenge.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • The knight of Ivanhoe underlies the challenge of Brian der Bois Guilbert.
  • (mining) To underlay.