saboteur
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of saboteur
1920–25; < French, equivalent to sabot ( er ) to botch ( see sabotage) + -eur -eur
Explanation
A saboteur is a person who makes a mess of a situation on purpose. You might call your little brother a saboteur for letting the air out of your bicycle tires, but you could be a saboteur in return by filling his shoes with cold spaghetti. Saboteur is a noun that is fairly new to the English language; it was first used in the early 1900s, and it refers to a person who deliberately destroys or obstructs something. It comes from the French word, saboter, which really and truly means to kick something with an old-fashioned wooden shoe. We can only hope that one day the word Nikeur might enter the English language to mean a person who kicks something with a sneaker.
Vocabulary lists containing saboteur
Farewell to Manzanar
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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They Called Us Enemy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The museum made the comment after Boyne criticised the current ubiquity of novels with names such as The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Saboteur of Auschwitz, The Librarian of Auschwitz and The Brothers of Auschwitz.
From The Guardian • Jan. 7, 2020
Tinder loves that the formerly skeptical now congregate at Saboteur, drinking coffee, trying anything and everything he makes.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 17, 2016
At the brand new Saboteur Bakery in Bremerton, Wash., pastry chef Matt Tinder tends to have at least one, identified by its proper name, on his daily menu.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 7, 2016
The role of Fry in Saboteur brought him back to Hollywood and triggered a professional friendship with Hitchcock that spanned nearly four decades.
From Time • May 26, 2012
There's the fascist imperialism of the buildings in Halo 3: ODST, the Southern Gothic facades of Left 4 Dead 2, and the French classical architecture in The Saboteur.
From Slate • Dec. 17, 2009
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
