If a bank or other organization underwrites an activity, it gives it financial support and takes responsibility for paying any costs if it fails.
Meaning of underwrite in English
(Definition of underwrite from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
underwrite | American Dictionary
underwrite
verb [ T ]
us
/ˈʌn·dərˌrɑɪt/ past tense underwrote us/ˈʌn·dərˌroʊt/ | past participle underwritten us/ˈʌn·dərˌrɪt·ən/underwrite | Business English
FINANCE
He underwrote a friend's development company in New York.
Many businesses have underwritten the event.
Examples of underwrite
underwrite
Are these higher flights of thinking special to humans, and if so, what is it about us that underwrites this fact?
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The absence of a plausible, independent story underwriting the introduction of such correlation rendered the explanatory story suspect.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
As we have seen, intellectuals generally do allow their existence to be underwritten by the contrasting features of elsewheres.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
With high capital requirements for underwriting guaranteed annuities, new less capital-intensive designs will need to be developed in order to meet capacity needs.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Together, these two convictions underwrote the commitment of the government to a rapid liberalisation of the economy and the sale of even the most strategic enterprises.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
They underwrote the cost of phase 1, but they have not provided the money for the subsequent three appeal phases.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
The names of the firms underwriting the offers for sale of the regional electricity companies are set out in the prospectus.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
They made a contribution but were not called upon to fulfil the complete guarantee that they had underwritten.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Until something like that happens, there is no point in underpinning or underwriting the present chaos and inefficiency.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
In a sense, we are underwriting agreements that may be entered into but which we may never be called upon to meet.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
There is no intention to require insurance companies to research their records of business written by underwriting agents for years back.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We are therefore proposing that these expenses should be underwritten from public funds to the extent that the debtor's assets are insufficient to meet them.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Before privatisation, it was the taxpayer who inevitably underwrote investment.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
The taxpayer, rather than future employees or employers, is underwriting the fund, because we want to give the pensioners a fair deal.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
More important than those advantages is the fact that a single currency underwrites a single market.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
