Under vs Towards - What's the difference?
under | towards |
In or at a lower level than.
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=14 * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= As a subject of; subordinate to.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 5, author=Phil McNulty, title=Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool
, work=BBC Sport * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 14, author=Angelique Chrisafis
, title=Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism, work=Guardian
Less than.
Below the surface of.
(figuratively) In the face of; in response to (some attacking force).
* 2011 , Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/15210221.stm]
As, in the character of.
* 2013 , The Huffington Post, JK Rowling Pseudonym: Robert Galbraith's 'The Cuckoo's Calling' Is Actually By Harry Potter Author [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/13/jk-rowling-pseudonym-robert-galbraith_n_3592769.html]
In a way lower or less than.
* (rfexample)
In a way inferior to.
* (rfexample)
In an unconscious state.
Being lower; being beneath something.
* Bible, 1 Corinthians ix. 27
* Moore
*
*
*
Variant of toward.
* 1835 , Sir , Sir (James Clark Ross),
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
, title= (obsolete) In the direction of something (indicated by context).
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iv:
(obsolete) Near; at hand; in state of preparation; toward.
* Shakespeare
As prepositions the difference between under and towards
is that under is under while towards is variant of toward.As an adverb towards is
(obsolete) in the direction of something (indicated by context).As an adjective towards is
(obsolete) near; at hand; in state of preparation; toward.under
English
Preposition
(English prepositions)- The little boys in the front bedroom had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets.
citation, passage=Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.}}
High and wet, passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.
citation, passage=He was then denied by a magnificent tackle from captain Terry as Liverpool continued to press - but Chelsea survived as the memories of the nightmare under Villas-Boas faded even further into the background.}}
citation, passage=Dati launched a blistering attack on the prime minister, François Fillon, under whom she served as justice minister, accusing him of sexism, elitism, arrogance and hindering the political advancement of ethnic minorities.}}
- England's World Cup dreams fell apart under a French onslaught on a night when their shortcomings were brutally exposed at the quarter-final stage.
- J.K. Rowling has written a crime novel called 'The Cuckoo's Calling' under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
Synonyms
* below * beneath * underneathAntonyms
* above * overAdverb
(-)- It took the hypnotist several minutes to make his subject go under .
Synonyms
* below * beneathAntonyms
* above * overAdjective
(en adjective)- I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.
- The minstrel fell, but the foeman's chain / Could not bring his proud soul under .
Derived terms
* down under * six feet under * underachieve * underage * underarm * undercurrent * undercut * underground * underhanded * underneath * underrate * underreport * under the weather * undertow * underwater * underworld : See also:References
* Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "The vertical axis", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition , Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8Statistics
*towards
English
Preposition
(en-prep) (mainly in British English )Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Volume 1, pp.284-5
- Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.
Everton 0-2 Liverpool, passage=But with Goodison Park openly directing its full hostility towards Atkinson, Liverpool went ahead when Carroll turned in his first Premier League goal of the season after 70 minutes.}}
Synonyms
* towardUsage notes
* Although some have tried to discern a semantic distinction between the words (term) and (towards), the difference is merely dialectal. (term) is the most common form, while (toward) tends to appear only in American English.See also
* SeeAdverb
(en adverb)- Thus as he spake, lo far away they spyde / A varlet running towards hastily [...].
Adjective
(-)- We have a trifling foolish banquet / Towards .