undermine
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Pronunciation
- (British) IPA: /ʌndəˈmaɪn/
undermine (undermines, present participle undermining; past and past participle undermined)
- To dig underneath (something), to make a passage for destructive or military purposes; to sap. [from 14th c.]
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 312:
- Martin, for instance, had on one occasion undermined a tree sacred to old gods, then stood in the path of its fall, but forced it to fall elsewhere by making the sign of the Cross.
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 312:
- (figuratively) To weaken or work against; to hinder, sabotage. [from 15th c.]
- The war efforts were undermined by the constant bickering between the allies.
- French: saper
- German: unterlaufen, untergraben, unterminieren, schwächen
- Italian: minare
- Portuguese: solapar, sabotar
- Russian: подрыва́ть
- Spanish: socavar, desvirtuar
- French: saper
- German: untergraben
- Portuguese: solapar, minar
- Russian: подка́пывать
- Spanish: socavar
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004