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Definition of "sabotage" []

  • Destruction of property or obstruction of normal operations, as by civilians or enemy agents in time of war. (noun)
  • Treacherous action to defeat or hinder a cause or an endeavor; deliberate subversion. (noun)
  • To commit sabotage against. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "sabotage" in a sentence
  • "The word sabotage is storied to be from the French word for wooden shoe, sabot, to recall how French workers threw their shoes into newfangled machinery to foil the efforts of industrial revolution bosses."
  • "OTTAWA — The Bloc Quebecois filed a police complaint over what it described as sabotage in one of four federal byelections Monday."
  • "AMMAN Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday legislation to lift 48 years of emergency law would be enacted by next week but warned that new laws in the works would not be lenient toward what he called sabotage."