From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishunderstudyun‧der‧stud‧y1 /ˈʌndəˌstʌdi $ -ər-/ noun (plural understudies) [countable] APTan actor who learns a part in a play so that they can act the part if the usual actor is ill► see thesaurus at actor
Examples from the Corpus
understudy• Drew became less punctual, he muffed his lines, and was often replaced by an understudy.• In her place was her understudy, Miss Lisa Fennell, a young dancer usually seen in the chorus.• The role, after all, was written for the actress, considered so indispensable that she had no understudy.• Since the understudy was off with flu, there could be no show.• Désirée was Countess Maud, and here he was in such a short time, having to use the understudy again.• Couldn't go on with the performance even with the understudies because of the police coming in.• For her last week, Cuka had been appearing with understudy Richard Franklin because Crawford had laryngitis.• In a company without understudies, this presented a problem, but the Ailey dancers were used to last-minute adjustments.understudyunderstudy2 verb (understudied, understudying, understudies) [transitive] APTto be an understudy for a particular actor in a play→ See Verb table 