underwhelm
verb
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Overwhelm and its rare synonym whelm have both been around since the Middle Ages, but underwhelm is a 20th-century coinage. Both overwhelm and whelm come from the Middle English whelmen, meaning "to turn over" or "to cover up." Underwhelm is a playful overturning of overwhelm that is well suited for contexts in which something fails to excite. As is often the case with younger words, there is a certain amount of misinformation regarding where underwhelm came from. We have seen reports that the playwright George S. Kaufman coined it, and also that the famed sportswriter Red Smith claimed to have used it first. Neither of these is likely to be accurate, for the simple fact that there is evidence that underwhelming was used, albeit as an adjective, before either of these men was born.
Examples of underwhelm in a Sentence
Will Daniel, Fortune, 9 July 2024
Left guard Brady Christensen, who missed all but one game last season, could be an option, even if that might underwhelm onlookers.
—Mike Kaye, Charlotte Observer, 12 Feb. 2024
The Portland Thorns shared an update on their forthcoming sale, the Portland Timbers advanced in Leagues Cup, and the USWNT continues to underwhelm on the World Cup stage.
—oregonlive, 2 Aug. 2023
First came 14 minutes of work-in-progress footage from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the long-gestating sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Best Animated Feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which seemed to underwhelm the 4,000-something CinemaCon audience.
—Chris Lee, Vulture, 25 Apr. 2023
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Cite this Entry
“Underwhelm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/underwhelm. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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