countermine
Americannoun
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Military. a mine intended to intercept or destroy an enemy mine.
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a counterplot.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to make a countermine.
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Military. to intercept or destroy enemy mines.
noun
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military a tunnel dug to defeat similar activities by an enemy
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a plot to frustrate another plot
verb
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to frustrate by countermeasures
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military to take measures to defeat the underground operations of (an enemy)
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military to destroy enemy mines in (an area) with mines of one's own
Etymology
Origin of countermine
late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75; see origin at counter-, mine 2
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.
See Examples For:
Navy’s countermine capabilities as it retires traditional minesweepers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
A U.S. defense official said the military was using a combination of manned and unmanned capabilities in the countermine operation, but declined to comment on operational specifics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
Extremely few flag officers ever served as countermine officers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
The growing modern mine threat is so significant, that the Navy has been fast-tracking a wide range of new countermine attack and defense strategies.
From Fox News ● Feb. 28, 2020
In that way the lonely hermit put his foot down and began a countermine, working as silently as possible.
From The Book of the Bush Containing Many Truthful Sketches Of The Early Colonial Life Of Squatters, Whalers, Convicts, Diggers, And Others Who Left Their Native Land And Never Returned by J. Macfarlane
But while Pitt sapped the approaches to the citadel, Loughborough countermined him.
From William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose
We mined the organization of the Iron Heel with our secret agents, and the Iron Heel countermined with its secret agents inside its own organization.
From The Iron Heel by Jack London
They countermined the assailants, and, encountering them in the subterraneous passages, drove them back, and demolished the frame-work of the galleries.
From The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 2 by William Hickling Prescott
Plainly I read between the lines that our plot had been discovered, that we had been countermined.
From The Iron Heel by Jack London
He has countermined me; blown up my works!
From Anna St. Ives by Thomas Holcroft
And many a U.S. diplomat, busily countermining the British, worries more about them than he does about the Russians.
From Time Magazine Archive
Whilst they played wits against me—against me who commanded nations, and intrigued for them, and fought for them, hundreds of years before they were born—I was countermining them.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
On the other hand, the official police were helped for a time by zealous loyalists, who formed a "Holy Band" for secretly countermining the Nihilist organisation.
From The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) by John Holland Rose
The last few weeks were further enlivened by the knowledge that the Austrians were countermining against us.
From World's War Events, Vol. II by Francis J. (Francis Joseph) Reynolds
The apothecary is perpetually employed in countermining the cook and the vintner.
From The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant by John Hamilton Moore
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.
