undermine

verb

1. 1

   To dig underneath (something), to make a passage for destructive or military purposes; to sap.

   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.

2. 2

   figurativeTo weaken or work against; to hinder, sabotage.

   The war efforts were undermined by the constant bickering between the allies.

   The penile mishaps (one involving a bristled toothbrush), severings (one involves hungry ducks) and surgeries cited by Ms. Roach are nothing if not memorable, but her book consistently undermines its own discoveries.

   The growing use of social media to spread anger and dissent in the Arab world has been hailed by western governments as one of the chief justifications for a completely unfettered internet. The US is reportedly funding the secret rollout of technology in Iran in an effort to undermine internet censors in the country.

   When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goes to the risks of amplification.

3. 3

   To erode the base or foundation of something, e.g. by the action of water.

   Dungeness: The branch to the nuclear power station at Dungeness has been temporarily out of use because badgers have undermined the trackbed.

4. 4

   To regard an object as the sum of the parts that compose it, in object-oriented ontology.

   We can even go further: when we consider an object in everyday life we do not usually just undermine or overmine it as if it demanded an either/or approach, but rather we run the two processes in tandem: duomining, as Harman labels it.

Forms

past tense

undermined

past participle

undermined

present participle

undermining

third person singular

undermines