Other forms: undercutting, undercuts
An undercut is short sides with longer hair left on top. Get an undercut, a severe undercut, growing out an undercut.
The disconnection between the two lengths is what defines it, and growing one out takes months because the sides must reach the top length. As a verb, to undercut is to sell more cheaply than a rival, or to weaken something from below. Note that the compound is under plus cut.
1nounundercutShort sides with longer hair left on top.
“He asked the barber for an undercut and came out with his hair slicked back on top.”
2verbsellTo sell more cheaply than a rival.
“The new supermarket undercut the local shops, selling bread at half the price.”
undercut is a haircut, or an underselling.
Under plus cut, from Middle English undercutten. The pricing sense is a nineteenth-century figurative use.
Middle English
undercutten
English, today
undercut
From Middle English undercutten, equivalent to under- + cut.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA