undermined
Americanadjective
-
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.
Burkina, Mali and Niger did so earlier in July, leading the ICC's executive body to voice concern that their departure undermined the global pursuit of justice.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
What al-Gharbi calls “normie beliefs,” ones that are often true and well-founded, are relentlessly undermined within the discipline: You think religion is good?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Both Exposito and Martinez agreed that the data from the World Cup should be informative for Hollywood, where Latino talent continues to be undermined.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Others were vulnerable because of shoddy construction amid rampant corruption that undermined an otherwise-strong building code.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Vesalius claimed to identify scores of errors in Galen and thus undermined his authority, just as Columbus’s discoveries had undermined the authority of Ptolemy.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
