Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The deliberate destruction of property or obstruction of normal operations, as by civilians or enemy agents in a time of war.
- noun The deliberate attempt to damage, destroy, or hinder a cause or activity.
- transitive verb To damage, destroy, or hinder (something) by sabotage.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Scamped work.
- noun Malicious waste or destruction of an employer's property or injury to his interests by workmen during labor troubles.
- noun any surreptitious destruction of property or obstruction of activity by persons not known to be hostile; -- in war, such actions carried out behind enemy lines by agents or local sympathisers of the hostile power.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction.
- verb to deliberately destroy or damage something in order to prevent it from being successful
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a deliberate act of destruction or disruption in which equipment is damaged
- verb destroy property or hinder normal operations
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The word sabotage is storied to be from the French word for wooden shoe, sabot, to recall how French workers threw their shoes into newfangled machinery to foil the efforts of industrial revolution bosses.
Survival of the Savvy Rick Brandon 2004
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The word sabotage is storied to be from the French word for wooden shoe, sabot, to recall how French workers threw their shoes into newfangled machinery to foil the efforts of industrial revolution bosses.
Survival of the Savvy Rick Brandon 2004
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The word sabotage is storied to be from the French word for wooden shoe, sabot, to recall how French workers threw their shoes into newfangled machinery to foil the efforts of industrial revolution bosses.
Survival of the Savvy Rick Brandon 2004
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The word sabotage is storied to be from the French word for wooden shoe, sabot, to recall how French workers threw their shoes into newfangled machinery to foil the efforts of industrial revolution bosses.
Survival of the Savvy Rick Brandon 2004
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OTTAWA — The Bloc Quebecois filed a police complaint over what it described as sabotage in one of four federal byelections Monday.
Dismal Turnouts For Victory! Lindsay Stewart 2009
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AMMAN Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday legislation to lift 48 years of emergency law would be enacted by next week but warned that new laws in the works would not be lenient toward what he called sabotage.
Reuters: Top News 2011
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AMMAN Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday legislation to lift 48 years of emergency law would be enacted by next week but warned that new laws in the works would not be lenient toward what he called sabotage.
Reuters: Top News 2011
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In fact, according to the ghostly murmurings of Mary Alice’s narration, there is a lot more depth to the term sabotage than those pesky Beastie Boys would have us believe.
Televisionista Justin Van De Kamp 2006
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Preventing last-minute efforts at sabotage is more difficult, structurally, because there are very few processes in government that are immunized from political interference.
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The headline asks if sabotage is happening - with no proof (that I can see) to even hint that such a thing has happened and/or that NASA is investigating actual events as suspected sabotage at this attempt.
lampbane commented on the word sabotage
"I Can't Stand It I Know You Planned It
But I'm Gonna Set It Straight, This Watergate
I Can't Stand Rocking When I'm In Here
Because Your Crystal Ball Ain't So Crystal Clear
So While You Sit Back And Wonder Why
I Got This Fucking Thorn In My Side
Oh My God, It's A Mirage
I'm Tellin' Y'all It's Sabotage"
July 31, 2007
hernesheir commented on the word sabotage
Then there is this: Pizzeria Owner Left Mice At Rival Shops. I aver rats and cockroaches will triumph in the end.
"This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper." - T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
March 2, 2011
Sapiens commented on the word sabotage
i thought the etymology was to kick someone from the side with wooden boots, in French, which was "sabot"
January 10, 2012
hernesheir commented on the word sabotage
The etymology gives the origin of the word, rather than the uses to which sabots were put to. Clomping around in wooden boots would require the wearer to invest in a pair of hard-wearing sashoons, no?
January 10, 2012
sohailmeeran commented on the word sabotage
sabotage means demolish
eg hitler sabotaged the czechoslovakia
July 3, 2012