Word.ws English Dictionary

countermine

countermine noun: a mine used by defenders to intercept an enemy mine or tunnel.

Noun

countermine (plural countermines)

  1. A mine used by defenders to intercept an enemy mine or tunnel.
    • Normally the threat would have been dealt with by means of a counter-mine, but the tunnel was now far too close for that.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 436
  2. An underground gallery excavated to intercept and destroy the mining of an enemy.
  3. A stratagem or plot by which another stratagem or project is defeated.
    • Thinking himself contemned, knowing no countermine against contempt but terror.a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...

Verb

countermine (third-person singular simple present countermines, present participle countermining, simple past and past participle countermined)

  1. To plot opposition; to frustrate the initiatives of another.
    • […] every gamester will agree how necessary it is to know exactly the play of another, in order to countermine him.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter III, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VI
    Synonyms:
    counterplot
  2. (intransitive, transitive) to sap hostile mining.
    • […]so Fritz could sleep easily in his trench, so far as mines were concerned; and Fritz, confident in his Herr Professors, altogether neglected any attempt to counter-mine.1923, Frank Fox, “The Man-Made Earthquake”, in Charles Francis Horne, The Great Events of the Great War, volume 5

countermine meaning in Tamil and Bengali

countermine in Tamil

எதிர்வினை செய்

countermine in Bengali

বিরোধিতা করার ষড়যন্ত্র করা

Synonyms of countermine

Forms of countermine

Noun
pluralcountermines
Verb
third-person singular presentcountermines
present participlecountermining
past participlecountermined
pastcountermined

Origin of countermine

From counter- + mine.

Questions about countermine

What does countermine mean?
Countermine means a mine used by defenders to intercept an enemy mine or tunnel.
What is countermine in Tamil?
Countermine in Tamil is எதிர்வினை செய். See Countermine meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is countermine?
Countermine can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of countermine?
The plural of countermine is countermines.

Words near countermine in the dictionary

  1. countermigrates
  2. countermigrating
  3. countermigration
  4. countermigrations
  5. countermilitary
  6. countermine
  7. countermined
  8. countermines
  9. countermining
  10. countermission
  11. countermissions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: countermine (page history and authors); countermine (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); countermine (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-countermine.wav.

Cite this entry: “countermine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/countermine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.