Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To weaken by wearing away a base or foundation: Water has undermined the stone foundations.
- v. To weaken, injure, or impair, often by degrees or imperceptibly; sap: Late hours can undermine one's health.
- v. To dig a mine or tunnel beneath.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To form a mine under; sap; render unstable by digging or wearing away the foundation of; make an excavation beneath, especially for the purpose of causing to fall, or of blowing up: as, to undermine a wall; a river undermines its banks.
- Figuratively, to subvert by removing clandestinely the foundation of; injure by invisible, secret, or dishonorable means.
- To injure, weaken, or destroy insidiously or indirectly; wear away; wear out; sap.
- n. Same as mine, 2 .
- n. A cave.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. 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.
- v. Fig.: To remove the foundation or support of by clandestine means; to ruin in an underhand way.
WordNet 3.0
- v. destroy property or hinder normal operations
- v. hollow out as if making a cave or opening
Etymologies
- From under- + mine. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“They have no respect for the Constitution because this power which they are trying to undermine, is specifically delegated to the President.”
Think Progress » Rep. Gohmert introduces resolution endorsing an Israeli military strike on Iran.
“To expand on that, Washington seems to think that helping Israel keep up non-nuclear appearances might make Israel less inclined to once again undermine the Israel-Palestine peace process.”
The Huffington Post: Russ Wellen: How Does Staying Mum on Israel's Nukes Help the Peace Process?
“Has an ordinary man the courage to demand such sacrifices, and would not such efforts most certainly demoralise the Army, break up the bands of discipline, and, in short, undermine its military virtue, if firm reliance on the greatness and infallibility of the Commander did not compensate for all?”
“These type of extreme labels undermine any thought provoking discussions and reflect the authors lack of meaningful dialouge.”
“Furthermore, some influential indigenous chiefs have joined the campaign against the charter arguing that the proposed reform of indigenous affairs and a common name undermine indigenous traditional authority and culture.”
“I’d bet he’d be able to help plot strategy for managing the UN, give the current lay of the SC & the GA, and advise on who to marginalize/coopt/undermine from the start.”
“These labels undermine consumer confidence in dairy products.”
“Toyota recalls undermine Japanese confidence in an industrial titan”
“Toyota recalls undermine Japanese confidence in an industrial titan Dropping This Article”
“Huh, well, having attended one junior high and three high schools in Florida from 1957-1962, and comparing the system there with the one in Massachusetts where I went to primary school, I have the impression that it is difficult to "undermine" the Florida secondary educational system much further.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘undermine’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, smug, whit, amidships, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1894 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 222 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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My Revised GRE Preparation List
Words from the new GRE : This list consists mostly of words from the book Magoosh-GRE-vocab-ebook, which is one of the best vocab materials available, especially if you have started preparing one ...
mulct, dupe, pittance, stipend, defray, cupidity, avarice, prodigal, profligate, affluent, insolvent, penurious and 533 more...
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dyy's Words
ambivalence, irony, double-edged sword, paradox, struggle, plunge, buoy, pigeon-hole, ultimately, status quo, fuel, undermine and 230 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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amy's GRE 2012
gimmicks, kowtow, unpretentious, skeptical, cynical, somber, prevaricate, equivocate, requisite, embellish, impregnable, procrastinate and 307 more...
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Joshee Word List
gash, engross, entail, stoke, ode, vacillate, aspersion, asperity, clan, kith, prospect, nag and 229 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for undermine.
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