How to use undermine in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Undermine means to dig underneath (something), to make a passage for destructive or military purposes; to sap. Example: “The war efforts were undermined by the constant bickering between the allies.”

Examples of undermine by meaning

verbTo dig underneath (something), to make a passage for destructive or military purposes; to sap.

Martin, for instance, had on one occasion undermined a tree sacred to old gods, then stood in the path of its fall, but forced it to fall elsewhere by making the sign of the Cross.2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 312

verbTo weaken or work against; to hinder, sabotage.

The war efforts were undermined by the constant bickering between the allies.
Roach are nothing if not memorable, but her book consistently undermines its own discoveries.2008 April 7, Janet Maslin, “A Sex Researcher Walks Into a Lab, and Then Things Start to Get Comical”, in The New York Times, archived from...
The US is reportedly funding the secret rollout of technology in Iran in an effort to undermine internet censors in the country.2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian, archived from the...

verbTo erode the base or foundation of something, e.g. by the action of water.

The thousands of gallons of water that cascaded onto the railway line below washed away track, ballast and overhead line equipment, and undermined embankments along a 300-metre section of Scotland's busiest rail link.2020 August 26, “Network News: Major flood damage severs key Edinburgh-Glasgow rail artery”, in Rail, page 21
Dungeness: The branch to the nuclear power station at Dungeness has been temporarily out of use because badgers have undermined the trackbed.2026 July 22, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Southern”, in RAIL, number 1066, page 21

More sentences with undermine

If someone undermines you at work you might say they were "white-anting" you.From the entry white-ant
Rampaging conspiracy theories have undermined authority figures in the area.From the entry rampaging
The thinker imprudently dismissed the ontological premises of the argument without engaging in dialectical scrutiny, thereby undermining the epistemic integrity of the discourse.From the entry imprudently
The federal government called these locations “sanctuary jurisdictions,” alleging they were undermining the rule of law.2025 July 22, Connor N. Smith, Mason Brighton, “Louisville drops sanctuary city status after DOJ pressure”, in Spectrum News, archived…. From the entry municipality
Moreover, waste, fraud, and abuse are occurring, undermining the program and diverting already limited resources.2024 September 23, Sam Adolphsen, Paige Terryberry, “WITH REFORM, TANF CAN LIFT AMERICAN FAMILIES OUT OF DEPENDENCY”, in Foundation for…. From the entry TANF
You will be charged with undermining western civilisation, destroying its masculinity and threatening its health.2023 December 14, George Monbiot, “Call me all the names you want – I won’t stop telling the truth about livestock farming”, in The…. From the entry soyboy
His power base, however, is undermined by him being constantly, “ghosted”, or moved from prison to prison.2020, Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight, Prisoners on Prison Films, page 26. From the entry ghost
Some argue that it legitimizes the fetishization of trans people and undermines the legitimacy of transgender identities.2017, Don LePan, Laura Buzzard, Maureen Okun, How to Be Good with Words, →ISBN, page 158. From the entry skoliosexuality
Gold farming is often described as a parasitic business practice that undermines the stability of virtual economics.2010 October 26, Greg Lastowka, Virtual Justice: The New Laws of Online Worlds, Yale University Press, →ISBN, →OL. From the entry parasitic
In fact, from their perspective, work would have undermined their sense of self.2008, Stanley J. Schachter, Laugh for God's Sake: Where Jewish Humor and Jewish Ethics Meet. From the entry shnor
A hardy, self-helpful child life, bravened by necessities, never undermined by luxuries.2008, James Lane Allen, The Mettle of the Pasture. From the entry braven
It uses expectation to undermine expectation both of everyday 'reality' and of theatrical genre.2007, Ralph Yarrow, Franc Chamberlain, Sacred Theatre, page 114. From the entry unmean
Such a quarrel would undermine the community of Anglo-Saxonry that he supported so strenuously.2007, Anthony Brundage, Richard A. Cosgrove, The Great Tradition. From the entry Anglo-Saxonry
The Internet undermines the quality of human interaction, allowing destructive emotional impulses freer rein under specific circumstances.2006, John Brockman [ed.], Daniel Goleman [contrib.], “Cyberdisinhibition”, in What Is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today’s Leading Thinkers on…. From the entry cyberdisinhibition
Procedural and generative cybertext work undermines the concept of authorship and encourages the discussion about 'cyborg authorship'2005, Eva Müller-Zettelmann, Margarete Rubik, Theory into poetry: new approaches to the lyric. From the entry cybertext
This sort of hypervaluation of sickness and suffering would indeed have undermined the rule of the monastery.2005, Andrew Todd Crislip, From Monastery to Hospital, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 97. From the entry hypervaluation
This nonstandardization can be quite dangerous, however, and completely undermines shared SA in these systems.2003, Mica R. Endsley, Betty Bolte, Debra G. Jones, Designing for Situation Awareness: An Approach to User-Centered Design, →ISBN. From the entry nonstandardization
Zero tolerance has undermined the popular support upon which effective crime-fighting ultimately relies.2000 April 10, Jeffrery Rosen, “Excessive Force”, in The New Republic. From the entry broken windows
The modernist intimations accruing as doubts about Rickie's sentimental Edwardianism also undermine Forster's own “sober” Edwardianism.1997, Brian May, The Modernist as Pragmatist, page 50. From the entry Edwardianism
Opening act Color Me Badd provided a similarly radical undermining of the tyranny of audiocentrism.1992 July 31, Roland Barthesimpsonne, “Ay! Ay! Ay!”, in Boston Phoenix, volume 21, number 31, Boston, M.A.: Phoenix Media/Communications…. From the entry audiocentrism
“The Great Feminization” catastrophizes wildly about the future, presumably because what’s happening in the present utterly undermines its central thesis.2025 November 5, Sophie Gilbert, “No, Women Aren’t the Problem”, in The Atlantic. From the entry catastrophize
Many frontwomen deal with an unconscious sense of being subtly undermined while also being the obvious center of a band’s gravity.2025 June 2, Lizzy Goodman, “Shirley Manson, the Unexpected Godmother of Rock”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original…. From the entry frontwoman
These videos, called cheap fakes, have become a common tactic to undermine Biden’s fitness for office as the 81-year-old seeks reelection.2024 June 21, Sara Swann, “‘Cheap fake’ videos, and the phrase itself, take 2024 election’s center stage”, in Politifact, archived from…. From the entry cheap fake
At the same time, they participated in transimperial networks that undermined the core–periphery hierarchies of British imperial science.2021, Ulrike Kirchberger, “Between Transimperial Networking and National Antagonism: German Scientists in the British Empire during the…. From the entry subimperialism
For example, PowerShell has full access to the core OS of a Windows computer, so it can undermine existing security features.2021, Mark Ciampa, CompTIA Security + Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, page 72. From the entry LOLBin
She favoritizes while she undermines, demeans and denigrates you.2020, Darlene Krug, Damaged Goods, page 4. From the entry favoritize
While it is generally admitted that Leonardo was hugely gifted, the modern tendency to arrogant 'epochism' seeks to undermine his achievements.2020, Clive Prince, Lynn Picknett, The Templar Revelation, page 26. From the entry epochism
Such disproportionate rewards for being a 'good man' can shore up patriarchal social structures instead of undermining or dismantling them.2019, Working Across Difference, Macmillan Education UK, →ISBN, page 113. From the entry hypervalue
Magness also cites work from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that undermines the new claim from the Warrenistas.2019 October 8, James Freeman, “New Problems with Elizabeth Warren’s Inequality Math”, in The Wall Street Journal, New York, N.Y.: Dow…. From the entry Warrenista
You worry that working together undermines your myth of self-reliance, so you hyperexaggerate its value to mask the fear.2018, Derek B. Miller, American By Day, page 97. From the entry hyperexaggerate
Replies to the tweets tried to undermine the image by posting other memes countering the original's idea, or by mocking it.2018 June 14, Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon, Axel Pérez Trujillo Diniz, “Colonizing Pepe: Internet Memes as Cyberplaces”, in Space and Culture…. From the entry countermeme
Fundamentally, ecoimperialism undermines the capacity of people to escape poverty.2017, Fred E. Jandt, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication. From the entry ecoimperialism
By destroying her, he can, as it were, “uncuckold” himself—rid himself and the world of the influence undermining his identity.2015, Matthew N. Proser, Heroic Image in Five Shakespearean Tragedies, page 134. From the entry uncuckold
It undermined cooperation that has since proved very profitable.2013, Harvey Beach, Blood and Land, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 23. From the entry mormal

Meaning of undermine

verb To dig underneath (something), to make a passage for destructive or military purposes; to sap.
verb To weaken or work against; to hinder, sabotage.
verb To erode the base or foundation of something, e.g. by the action of water.

Full definition of undermine

Questions about undermine in a sentence

How do you use undermine in a sentence?: Undermine is used as a verb. For example: “The war efforts were undermined by the constant bickering between the allies.”
What is a short sentence with undermine?: “It undermined cooperation that has since proved very profitable.”
What does undermine mean?: Undermine means to dig underneath (something), to make a passage for destructive or military purposes; to sap.

Adapted from Wiktionary: undermine (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use undermine in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/undermine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.