sabotage
Americannoun
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any underhand interference with production, work, etc., in a plant, factory, etc., as by enemy agents during wartime or by employees during a trade dispute.
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any undermining of a cause.
verb (used with object)
noun
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the deliberate destruction, disruption, or damage of equipment, a public service, etc, as by enemy agents, dissatisfied employees, etc
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any similar action or behaviour
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sabotagesimple
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sabotagessimple
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have sabotagedperfect
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has sabotagedperfect
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am sabotagingprogressive
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are sabotagingprogressive
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is sabotagingprogressive
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have been sabotagingperfect progressive
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has been sabotagingperfect progressive
Past
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sabotagedsimple
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had sabotagedperfect
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was sabotagingprogressive
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were sabotagingprogressive
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had been sabotagingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sabotage
First recorded in 1865–70; from French, from sabot(er) “to botch,” originally, “to harry, shake up, strike” (verb derivative of sabot sabot ) + -age -age
Explanation
Sabotage isn't very nice: It's when you ruin or disrupt something by messing up a part of it on purpose. Loosening the blades on your competitor's ice skates would definitely be considered sabotage. Sabotage comes from the French word saboter, which literally means “walk noisily.” That's funny, because the last thing you'd want to do when committing an act of sabotage is stomp around and get caught. It’s believed that sabotage came into use in 1910 as a noun, and then later in 1918 as a verb. Apparently, people only became so cruel in the last century or so.
Vocabulary lists containing sabotage
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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.
See Examples For:
The purpose is to transform accountability into victimhood and failure into sabotage.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
He said the movie's message is "a sign of turning tide or an audacious act of self sabotage".
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed "the need to avoid rhetoric, provocations, and actions that could escalate tensions in the period leading up to the signing of the agreement, and to remain vigilant against possible sabotage."
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
“Everybody’s weirdly competitive and trying to sabotage each other.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
Eugene Connelley, the assistant FBI director, declared it was the "most impressive" sabotage equipment he had ever seen.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
She triply underlines her feminist themes and nearly sabotages her own clever creation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2026
In his pain and anger, he sabotages the play, turns the Hook-Pan showdown into a real fight, and leaves an audience full of kids wondering if Neverland is always like this.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
Clodio wears a dress — because he insists, “Revenge is best in a dress” — and giddily kicks his feet in manic joy as he sabotages things.
From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2024
Ankara said the one-sided declaration was “a step that sabotages the normalization process.”
From Seattle Times ● May 13, 2024
"Then the Earthman—I mean the Earthman who sabotages the rockets—has to be a part of the technical staff," Rick said.
From The Scarlet Lake Mystery by Goodwin, Harold L. (Harold Leland)
Africa's largest oil producer has increased production in recent years in part by cracking down on theft while also hiring former militants who sabotaged pipelines to act as security.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
Debbie Kwon, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, had to overcome bureaucrats and colleagues who sabotaged her attempts to recruit engineering talent and apply AI to MRI technology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Grantham’s latest bearish case is that U.S. stocks could be sabotaged this year by an overheated IPO market.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 17, 2026
The ex-Confederate Jefferson Davis managed to avoid trial for treason; a sympathetic prosecution deliberately sabotaged its own case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2025
Instead they thoroughly sabotaged themselves and their cause.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Barrot said the attacks targeted government ministries, companies, and service operators, with the aim "either of capturing information or sabotaging operations, for example rail infrastructure, as was the case in Poland".
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
But McLaughlin did not merely alienate the judiciary; she consistently undermined the administration’s legal arguments, sabotaging lawyers’ efforts to cover up unlawful conduct by boasting about it on social media.
From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2026
But on Tuesday night, after nearly sabotaging itself once again, Scotland put an end to nearly three decades of heartbreak.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
On Thursday, the attorney who represented him in the October 2022 New York civil case said the Italian case may have been aimed at sabotaging her client before that trial began.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2025
“I’m probably not going to bother doing the sabotaging, either. At least I’m not going to sabotage that contest.”
From "Raymie Nightingale" by Kate DiCamillo
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.
