sabotage

1 of 2

noun

sab·​o·​tage ˈsa-bə-ˌtäzh How to pronounce sabotage (audio)
Synonyms of sabotagenext
1
: destruction of an employer's property (such as tools or materials) or the hindering of manufacturing by discontented workers
2
: destructive or obstructive action carried on by a civilian or enemy agent to hinder a nation's war effort
3
a
: an act or process tending to hamper or hurt
b
: deliberate subversion

sabotage

2 of 2

verb

sabotaged; sabotaging

transitive verb

: to practice sabotage on

Examples of sabotage in a Sentence

Noun Angry workers were responsible for the sabotage of the machines. Officials have not yet ruled out sabotage as a possible cause of the crash. Verb They sabotaged the enemy's oil fields. The airplane crashed because it was sabotaged. The lawyer is trying to sabotage the case by creating confusion. The deal was sabotaged by an angry employee.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
And all this follows the spectacularly successful campaign of sabotage that took hundreds of Hezbollah fighters unlucky enough to have been issued communications devices flagged for use in operations against Israel off the battlefield. —The Editors, National Review, 28 Sep. 2024 The 261-page manual includes detailed instructions for building explosives and encourages readers to destabilize society through murder and industrial sabotage. —A.c. Thompson, ProPublica, 25 Sep. 2024
Verb
So, given the urgent necessity of decarbonizing our energy grid and Texas's role as a renewable energy leader, why have its lawmakers been trying to sabotage progress against climate change? —Jeff Raikes, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024 Israel sabotaged the group’s communications, took out multiple senior figures and killed Hezbollah’s powerful and influential longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who cannot be easily replaced. —Dan De Luce, NBC News, 30 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for sabotage 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sabotage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

French, from saboter to clatter with sabots, botch, sabotage, from sabot

First Known Use

Noun

1910, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1913, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sabotage was in 1910

Dictionary Entries Near sabotage

sabot

sabotage

saboteur

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Sabotage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sabotage. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

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Kids Definition

sabotage

1 of 2 noun
sab·​o·​tage ˈsab-ə-ˌtäzh How to pronounce sabotage (audio)
1
: destruction of an employer's property or the action of making it difficult to work by discontented workers
2
: destructive or blocking action carried on by enemy agents or sympathizers to make a nation's war effort more difficult

sabotage

2 of 2 verb
sabotaged; sabotaging
: to practice sabotage on : wreck
Etymology

Noun

from French sabotage "destruction of property to hinder a manufacturing or war effort," from saboter "to clatter around wearing sabots, botch," from sabot "a wooden shoe"

Word Origin
Because the word sabotage appears related to French sabot, "wooden shoe," some people have thought that in the first cases of sabotage in France, industrial workers must have thrown their sabots into machinery in order to damage it. In fact, there is no evidence for such an etymology. The French verb saboter is known in the sense "to damage an employer's property" in the early 1900s but this meaning is perhaps based on an earlier sense "to carry out clumsily, botch, bungle," first attested in 1808. This meaning is in turn usually explained as proceeding from a yet older sense, "to make a clattering noise with sabots," on the premise that walking with wooden shoes suggests clumsy performance. It is hard to know if these diverse meanings are a single line of development, or if the associations evoked in Frenchmen by this piece of peasant footwear brought about episodes of verb creation from the same noun.

Legal Definition

sabotage

noun
sab·​o·​tage ˈsa-bə-ˌtäzh How to pronounce sabotage (audio)
1
: the willful destruction of an employer's property or the hindering of normal operations by other means
2
: the injury, destruction, or knowingly defective production of materials, premises, or utilities used for war or national defense compare criminal syndicalism, sedition
Etymology

Noun

French, from saboter to clatter with wooden shoes, botch, sabotage, from sabot wooden shoe

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