UNDERMINE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Undermine

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/ˈəndərmˌaɪn/ Listen

verb

Undermine v. t.

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."

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."

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Etymology of 'Undermine'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Undermine" Quotes from Famous Books

... of two lovers, of which I am reputed to be the cause, may do me the greatest harm, for this is how virtuous women undermine each other. It is disgraceful to pose as a victim in order to cast the blame on a woman whose only crime is that she keeps a pleasant house. If you love me, you will clear my character by reconciling the ...

— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac

... the imps chose certain persons as their very own. Moreover, the constant reminders of the danger of straying from the strait and narrow way, and of the tortures of the afterworld led to self-consciousness, introspection, and morbidness. The idea that Satan was at all times seeking to undermine the Puritan church also made it easy to believe that anyone living outside of, or contrary to, that church was an agent of the devil, in short, bewitched. As it is only the useful that survives, it was essential that the army of devils be given a work ...

— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday

... do, Conrad, to fight him openly. We must do what we can in an underhand way to undermine him with Cousin Hamilton. She ought to make you her heir, as she has no children ...

— The Store Boy • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... politics failed, he put on the mask of a metaphysician. Tired of that costume, he next attempted to play the farmer. Dissatisfied with farming, he wrote political pamphlets. Still discontented with his condition in the world, he strove to undermine ...

— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various

... your Church were like them we should quickly bid adieu to all hope of converting these regions, but we are thankful to be able to say that such folks are not numerous; there are, moreover, causes at work quite sufficient to undermine even their zeal. Their sons return at the vacations, from Oxford and Cambridge, puppies, full of the nonsense which they have imbibed from Platitude professors; and this nonsense they retail at home, where it fails not to make some ...

— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

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