Off in a gallop the General wheeled vanishing, And sped his steed away into the blue, When Lineoln now alone let go his speech Which had before been undertowed by force, [...]1914, Denton Jaques Snider, Lincoln at Richmond:
2
To pull down by, or as by, an undertow.
A sense that the air, a sighting of muddy river, or that outcrop of rock so implacably bland in the light of midday, is undertowed by memory.1998, Richard Gough, David Williams, Ric Allsopp, Performance Research: On Place:
I sink because I cannot swim, undertowed to the Centre, abandoning all remembrance of the surface toward the cloud of unknowing, without choice I'm pulled.2003, Michael T. Leibig, Mike Leibig Traveling in Disguise:
3
To flow or behave as an undertow.
Everybody knows this and acts accordingly; but when you say it, it sounds bad and bold, and makes you uncomfortable to hear it, because the puritan blood is still undertowing in your veins.1917, The Unpopular review:
undertow
noun
Etymology From under- + tow.
1
A short-range flow of water returning seaward from the waves breaking on the shore.
A strong undertow may sweep a returning swimmer off their feet but it does not carry them far from the shore.
2
Broadly A feeling that runs contrary to one's normal one.