spike someone's guns
spike someone's guns verb: to frustrate a person's efforts or designs; to undercut, to render helpless.
Verb
spike someone's guns (third-person singular simple present spikes someone's guns, present participle spiking someone's guns, simple past and past participle spiked someone's guns)
- To frustrate a person's efforts or designs; to undercut, to render helpless.
- But whatever the Russians may have felt (and, apparently, still do feel) about Shakespear, his superiors were delighted by the way he had so skilfully spiked the Tsar's guns by liberating his subjects.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 205
- Labour is known to be worried about the Cameron effect and might attempt to spike his guns.2005 November 8, John Crace, The Guardian
Forms of spike someone's guns
| third-person singular present | spikes someone's guns |
|---|---|
| present participle | spiking someone's guns |
| past participle | spiked someone's guns |
| past | spiked someone's guns |
Origin of spike someone's guns
From the wartime practice of welding a metal spike into the touch hole of a cannon (generally done to enemy guns by raiders, or to one's own guns if forced to abandon them in a retreat), making the cannon impossible to fire.
Questions about spike someone's guns
- What does spike someone's guns mean?
- Spike someone's guns means to frustrate a person's efforts or designs; to undercut, to render helpless.
- What part of speech is spike someone's guns?
- Spike someone's guns is a verb.
- What is the past tense of spike someone's guns?
- The past tense of spike someone's guns is spiked someone's guns.
Words near spike someone's guns in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spike someone's guns (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.
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