undergird the ship.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

Verb (used with object), : to undergird a top-heavy load. ,ethics undergirded by faith.    From Dictionary.com. 

Yet efforts to undergird longer-term growth were feeble.    From Wordnik.com.  [Europe's Choice: Growth or Safety Net] Reference

And we know that these fields undergird our national security.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Feb 24, 2004] Reference

Can you think of any other examples that undergird this hypothesis?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Edwards' Big Potential: Delegate Strength] Reference

Love will envelop and undergird and pervade and exude from all service.    From Wordnik.com.  [Quiet Talks on Power] Reference

We thought that we were right and we had a lot of support to undergird that.    From Wordnik.com.  [President Discussion With Students On Brown V Topeka] Reference

They also undergird his contributions to the study of both ethics and politics.    From Wordnik.com.  [Paul Ricoeur] Reference

The left needs to embrace the virtues and disciplines that undergird warrior strength.    From Wordnik.com.  [Consecrating the Warrior] Reference

The principles that undergird the basic law of the land are enduring, universal values.    From Wordnik.com.  [MILLENNIUM MESSAGE BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA] Reference

Those ancient notions undergird the refusal to confront the logical endpoint of criminalization.    From Wordnik.com.  [How Much Jail Time?] Reference

After the Revolutionary War, a puzzling question arose: Whose prayer would undergird the new nation?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diana Butler Bass: Happy National Day of Prayer...Or Is It National Day of Fighting Over Prayer?] Reference

And government ought to undergird a family, not undermine a basic family's rights to raise their own kids.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Feb 6, 2008] Reference

I have to undergird this peace process with a private sector and public sector building of these economies.    From Wordnik.com.  [Kantor Briefing On Bosnia And Croatia Trip] Reference

But both conservatives and progressives have strong moral values, which undergird our political priorities.    From Wordnik.com.  [Valerie Tarico: The Morality of Eight Babies or, Sometimes, Even One] Reference

Further, the definitions of success and failure that undergird the "Obama Paradox" are exceedingly amorphous.    From Wordnik.com.  [Peter Daou: Resolving the "Obama Paradox" (The Most Successful Failed Presidency in a Generation)] Reference

But this is not really a serious discussion of security requirements that should undergird the peace process.    From Wordnik.com.  ['A Race Against Time'] Reference

It has shaped the first phase of the transformation, and will continue to undergird our approach to economic change.    From Wordnik.com.  [Report of the Alliance Summit] Reference

We also believe that their financial contribution is an absolutely critical component to undergird the peace process.    From Wordnik.com.  [Press Briefing On The Eu Summit] Reference

The examples you adduced to undergird your claim read, to my eyes, like an attempt to fill a swimming pool by thimbles.    From Wordnik.com.  [Obama Criticizes Debate, Says Hillary "Looked In Her Element"] Reference

HUCKABEE: ... and government ought to undergird a family, not undermine a basic family's rights to raise their own kids.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Feb 5, 2008] Reference

We can make stable, three percent, fixed home loans with treasury-created funds which undergird a consumer-based economy.    From Wordnik.com.  [NATIONALIZE HOME LENDING] Reference

Meantime, Congress should get to work on that plan of Barney Frank's and Christopher Dodd's to undergird the bad mortgages.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jeff Madrick: What Does Recession Mean? It Means Economic Suffering] Reference

In 1972, China stood outside most of the international institutions and agreements that undergird our security and prosperity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Berger On China Policy To Council On Foreign Relations] Reference

Women undergird political campaigns and have often given them their most volatile expression, yet few hold executive positions.    From Wordnik.com.  [WOMEN IN THE APARTHEID SOCIETY(1)] Reference

Catholicism would support the monarchy and undergird the social order, not some generic mish-mash that lacks theological content.    From Wordnik.com.  [True Secularist] Reference

However, the two programs that undergird the basic health, welfare and retirement security of the general population of the United.    From Wordnik.com.  ["Parochial Considerations"] Reference

Just as migrants from south of the Rio Grande undergird America's economy, so one day will Muslims from Africa and the Middle East bolster Europe's.    From Wordnik.com.  [The East Looks Ok] Reference

But oil and finance undergird the U.S. economy and way of life, and the changes required to prevent other disasters in the future will bypass no one.    From Wordnik.com.  [Alyssa Battistoni: The Oil Spill is Not Like Katrina] Reference

The legal theories that undergird the decision, if affirmed on appeal, could radically change the landscape for same-sex marriage across the country.    From Wordnik.com.  [Edward Stein: Dramatic Victory for Same-Sex Marriage in California ... But What's Next?] Reference

A true debate on the issues would keep all of us honest by forcing us to think about our stances and that which undergirds or fails to undergird them.    From Wordnik.com.  [David A. Love: Too Ignorant To Articulate Their Own Ideas] Reference

But its passage signals an even more significant shift in the economic assumptions and power relationships that undergird American political and economic life.    From Wordnik.com.  [Robert Creamer: Senate Vote Signals Historic Change in Wall Street Political Clout] Reference

Because we need to surround ourselves with supportive people who will undergird our recovery, and we must maneuver our careers in ways that will aid our health.    From Wordnik.com.  [Therese Borchard: I'm Not Bipolar. I HAVE Bipolar] Reference

Physics was never the same, and his insights cleared the way for the solid-state electronics that undergird the Internet and the atom bombs that loomed over the cold war.    From Wordnik.com.  [Pondering The Future's Future] Reference

Over the course of the campaign against Hillary Clinton and now McCain, Obama has elaborated more and more the ideas that would undergird his foreign policy as president.    From Wordnik.com.  [Obama Abroad] Reference

He portrays 11 artists, each with a vial of his own blood or other cells, and offers to license, for a price and one-time-only use, the genes that undergird his creativity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Truth, Beauty And The Double Helix] Reference

"The feeling is that it's gaining legitimacy and that we need to undergird the process," says a senior U.N. official who spoke on condition that he not be further identified.    From Wordnik.com.  [Two Cheers for Bremer] Reference