undermined
Americanadjective
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attacked, weakened, or defeated by underhand or seemingly harmless actions or by imperceptible stages.
Both the struggling students and the most gifted ones are receiving limited support from an undermined educational system.
-
weakened or made to collapse by removing underlying support, as by eroding or digging away the foundation.
With the release of material from the undermined cliffs at these sites, we should have had far more sand to feed the beaches, not less.
-
deliberately weakened by an excavation or tunnel dug underneath, as by an enemy in war.
When the town was besieged, its defenders abandoned the undermined walls and retired into the citadel.
verb
Etymology
Origin of undermined
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.
Undermined by a property market crash, Spain's banks drove the country to seek just over 40 billion euros from its European partners last year to help clean up its financial sector.
From Reuters • Feb. 28, 2013
Oversight Undermined Race officials have always done their best to hide fatal breakdowns, erecting screens around fallen horses and then refusing to disclose the tracks’ accident rates.
From New York Times • Mar. 24, 2012
Undermined by nefarious dealings with the enemy, James Franklin, no doubt.
From Washington Post • Feb. 16, 2012
Contributed by @writeo Haitian Farmers Undermined by Food Aid, the Center for Public Integrity After the Haiti earthquake two years ago,, the U.S. sent 90,000 tons of food worth $140 million to the devastated nation.
From Slate • Jan. 13, 2012
Undermined by the high spring tides, rocks had fallen from above, and now lay thickly strewn about the beach, as if tossed there by the sea in angry or sportive mood.
From Daisy Burns (Volume 2) by Kavanagh, Julia
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.
