Adjacent Words

Undermine definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

UNDERMI'NE, v.t.
1. To sap; to excavate the earth beneath, for the purpose of suffering to fall, or of blowing up; as, to undermine a wall.
2. To excavate the earth beneath. Rapid streams often undermine their banks and the trees growing upon them.
3. To remove the foundation or support of any thing by clandestine means; as, to undermine reputation; to undermine the constitution of the state.
He should be warned who are like to undermine him.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: destroy property or hinder normal operations; "The Resistance sabotaged railroad operations during the war" [syn: sabotage, undermine, countermine, counteract, subvert, weaken]
2: hollow out as if making a cave or opening; "The river was caving the banks" [syn: cave, undermine]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Date: 14th century 1. to excavate the earth beneath ; form a mine under ; sap 2. to wash away supporting material from under 3. to subvert or weaken insidiously or secretly <trying to undermine his political rivals> 4. to weaken or ruin by degrees Synonyms: see weaken

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 injure (a person, reputation, influence, etc.) by secret or insidious means. 2 weaken, injure, or wear out (health etc.) imperceptibly or insidiously. 3 wear away the base or foundation of (rivers undermine their banks). 4 make a mine or excavation under. Derivatives: underminer n. underminingly adv. Etymology: ME f. UNDER- + MINE(2)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Undermine Un`der*mine", v. t. 1. To excavate the earth beneath, or the part of, especially for the purpose of causing to fall or be overthrown; to form a mine under; to sap; as, to undermine a wall. A vast rock undermined from one end to the other, and a highway running through it. --Addison. 2. Fig.: To remove the foundation or support of by clandestine means; to ruin in an underhand way; as, to undermine reputation; to undermine the constitution of the state. He should be warned who are like to undermine him. --Locke.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(undermines, undermining, undermined) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If you undermine something such as a feeling or a system, you make it less strong or less secure than it was before, often by a gradual process or by repeated efforts. Offering advice on each and every problem will undermine her feeling of being adult... Western intelligence agencies are accused of trying to undermine the government. VERB: V n, V n 2. If you undermine someone or undermine their position or authority, you make their authority or position less secure, often by indirect methods. She undermined him and destroyed his confidence in his own talent... The conversations were designed to undermine her authority so she felt that she could no longer work for the company. VERB: V n, V n 3. If you undermine someone's efforts or undermine their chances of achieving something, you behave in a way that makes them less likely to succeed. The continued fighting threatens to undermine efforts to negotiate an agreement... VERB: V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Sap, mine. 2. Ruin secretly, sap the foundations of.

Moby Thesaurus

abate, answer, answer conclusively, argue down, attenuate, blunt, bugger up, confound, confute, contradict, controvert, cramp, cripple, crush, damage, damp, dampen, dash, deaden, debilitate, defeat, demolish, deny, devitalize, disable, dismiss, dispose of, drain, dull, enervate, enfeeble, eviscerate, exhaust, extenuate, finish, floor, foil, frustrate, gruel, harm, honeycomb, hurt, impair, lay low, mine, mitigate, nonplus, overset, overthrow, overturn, overwhelm, parry, put to silence, queer, rattle, rebut, reduce, reduce to silence, refute, ruin, sabotage, sap, sap the foundations, settle, shake, shake up, shut up, silence, smash all opposition, soften up, spoil, squash, squelch, subvert, threaten, throw down, throw over, thwart, unbrace, undercut, unman, unnerve, unstrengthen, unstring, upend, upset, weaken, wreck