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
Called the AQS-24, the technology merges sonar with laser mine scanning and human command and control to sustain high-resolution countermine sensing and identification at speeds as fast as 18-knots.
From Fox News ● Feb. 28, 2020
When he has dug the mine, he finds a countermine already prepared by the Count Duke——” None can tell when the magistrate would have cast anchor, if Don Roderick had not interrupted him.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Manzoni, Alessandro
The morning came, the long desired sun arose, and all his plots were countermined, all his hopes of immediate action paralyzed, if not utterly destroyed.
From The Roman Traitor, Vol. 1 by Herbert, Henry William
But the king, who was not to be easily deceived, had countermined all Wallenstein's designs.
From Memoirs of a Cavalier A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Year 1632 to the Year 1648. by Defoe, Daniel
Plainly I read between the lines that our plot had been discovered, that we had been countermined.
From The Iron Heel by London, Jack
But I soon perceived that the ambassador had countermined me.
From Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini by Symonds, John Addington
Alas! the influence of one girl upon the actions of another girl may be as "immense" as you please, but wait until it is countermined by some newly appeared, attractive young scoundrel of a man!
From Miss Million's Maid A Romance of Love and Fortune by Onions, Mrs. Oliver
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
This last revolutionary measure, carried out with such rapidity that there was no possibility of countermining it created much astonishment in Soulanges and in Ville-aux-Fayes.
From Sons of the Soil by Balzac, Honoré de
In May, 1788, a Russian Envoy arrived and began countermining Austria.
From Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle by Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
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 Rose, John Holland
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.
