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# underachieve

«underachieve» in Mova's school dictionary: **to do less well than you are able to, especially at…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (underachieve, underachieves, underachieved, underachieving)

### meaning for a pupil

To underachieve is to do less well than you are able to, especially at school or work. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

A word used by teachers, parents and in school reports: «He is underachieving in maths». It tells the reader that a person could do better if they had more help, effort or interest. Person: an underachiever. Opposite: overachieve.

### examples

- The teacher said Sam was underachieving in reading. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/#x1)
- Some clever children underachieve because they are bored. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/#x2)
- The team underachieved this season. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/#x3)
- She stopped underachieving once she got glasses. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/#x4)
- Extra help can stop pupils underachieving. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/#x5)
- He felt he had underachieved in the test. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/#x6)

### note

Spelled as one word. Noun: underachievement; person: underachiever. Formal-ish school language; it is not the same as «failing» — it means doing less than you could.

### In the corpora

- ["Capable of more" means the pupil is underachieving: doing less well than he or she could.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «underachieve» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/underachieve/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.