underwhelm

English

Etymology

under- +‎ whelm: a humorous coinage by novel negation of overwhelm[1] first recorded in the 1950's.[2]

Verb

underwhelm (third-person singular simple present underwhelms, present participle underwhelming, simple past and past participle underwhelmed)

  1. To fail to impress; to perform disappointingly.
    • 2021 August 5, Shira Ovide, “YouTube Is Underwhelming”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      The fact that I even mentioned YouTube in the same paragraph as the middling TV company ViacomCBS and Twitter … well, that says something about how YouTube has underwhelmed for some time.

Antonyms

Translations

See also

References
  1. “underwhelm”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  2. “underwhelm”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
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