underworld Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the criminal class
  2. noun (religion) the world of the dead
    infernal region; Hades; netherworld; Scheol; Hell.
    • No one goes to Hades with all his immense wealth"-Theognis

WordNet

Un"der*world` noun
Definitions
  1. The lower of inferior world; the world which is under the heavens; the earth.
    That overspreads (with such a reverence) This underworld. Daniel.
  2. The mythological place of departed souls; Hades.
  3. The portion of the world which is below the horizon; the opposite side of the world; the antipodes. R.
    Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld. Tennyson.
  4. The inferior part of mankind. R. Atterbury.

Webster 1913