undertoad
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An underlying threat of disaster beneath the surface of everyday life.
noun
A mythical monster that lurks underwater to catch unwary swimmers; a personification of an undertow.
Example Sentences
- "Fully two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by water. The other one third is covered by a crack team of investigative reporters led by a crusty old bureau chief. This very fact means that the subject of water is fraught with grave political undertoads."
- "But the European framework has, as John Irving would say, 'an undertoad'. Kings in Conflict and Ireland's Fate both underscore the painful conclusion that Ireland, her rights and wrongs, was of little or no consequence within what was seen by..."
- "You're like Garp; you always imagine every terrible thing that could possibly happen. You see undertoads everywhere."
- "...the wish-delight of pure belief, unseasoned faith in being true, no cynicism to ease the pain, you said that, tapping-in, as it were, and the visible monologue says, go on, and fire the fall, the undertoad reciting the quick shots are your cards and letters imitating scorn or envy or distrust not present, but pure panic culls retreat from your coins today, today the crossing over into birthdays, into the new cycle..."
- "While attempting to plumb the intensity of my feelings about the “deep dark secrets,” known by absolutely everyone, I have been reminded of the “undertoad.”"
- "It was that undertoad what took old Bill's boy clean under the water and never brung him back up,” reminisced Will."
Etymology
From John Irving's 1978 novel The World According to Garp, in which the title character's son Walt mishears warnings about the undertow at the beach as warnings about an "under toad", causing the title character to subsequently use the phrase "under toad" to refer to the omnipresent threat of disaster that lies beneath the surface of everyday life.