sab·o·tage
ˈsa-bə-ˌtäzh 
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
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
Morgan Meaker, WIRED, 18 Apr. 2024
Daniel Arkin The bitter conflict between Israel and Iran has long been confined to the realm of secret assassinations, audacious cyberattacks, nuclear sabotage and war-by-proxy.
—NBC News, 16 Apr. 2024
Several cable failures in the Baltic Sea in 2023 raised suspicions of sabotage.
—Robin Chataut, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2024
How can any coach be successful after such sabotage.
—Los Angeles Times, 17 Feb. 2024
The local law criminalizes treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference.
—Jennifer Jett, NBC News, 20 Mar. 2024
The meetings are intended to help other nations promote best civil society practices and defend against political sabotage.
—Michael Crowley, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024
Whether meant as a joke or an attempt at sabotage, it unnerved staff.
—Lenora Chu, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Mar. 2024
While blatant sabotage explains the current immigration impasse, however, there’s something else lurking behind it: Trump and those around him are profoundly hostile to immigration in general.
—Paul Krugman, The Mercury News, 8 Feb. 2024
Carlo Angerer, NBC News, 18 Apr. 2024
Both countries have targeted merchant ships with links to their opponents, as well as carried out cyberattacks on one another, and Israel has repeatedly sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program.
—Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2024
This led him to sabotage his colleagues’ surgeries, Simonton said in her post Friday.
—Nicole Lopez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Apr. 2024
Iran has also built a significant overseas intelligence presence capable of sabotaging local infrastructure and supporting regional opposition movements.
—Jon B. Alterman, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2024
Ultimately, Scott argues that those three years of code changes and polite emails were likely not spent sabotaging multiple software projects, but rather building up a history of credibility in preparation for the sabotage of XZ Utils specifically—and potentially other projects in the future.
—Andy Greenberg and Matt Burgess, WIRED, 3 Apr. 2024
What’s different now is his open alliance with Republican states that are willing to sabotage the federal government at his behest.
—Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 31 Mar. 2024
His obsession with success sabotaged relationships.
—Steve Martin, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2024
The accusations of election fraud weren’t just anonymous, however: In 2022, Lake accused Richer of sabotaging her campaign for governor by incorrectly printing 300,000 ballots that were subsequently discounted.
—David Gilbert, WIRED, 19 Mar. 2024
Noun
Tesla is facing unprecedented challenges around the world, ranging from slowing demand, to increasing competition from its Chinese competitors, ongoing worker strikes in Sweden, and even sabotage by German climate activists.
—Morgan Meaker, WIRED, 18 Apr. 2024
Daniel Arkin The bitter conflict between Israel and Iran has long been confined to the realm of secret assassinations, audacious cyberattacks, nuclear sabotage and war-by-proxy.
—NBC News, 16 Apr. 2024
Several cable failures in the Baltic Sea in 2023 raised suspicions of sabotage.
—Robin Chataut, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2024
How can any coach be successful after such sabotage.
—Los Angeles Times, 17 Feb. 2024
The local law criminalizes treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference.
—Jennifer Jett, NBC News, 20 Mar. 2024
The meetings are intended to help other nations promote best civil society practices and defend against political sabotage.
—Michael Crowley, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024
Whether meant as a joke or an attempt at sabotage, it unnerved staff.
—Lenora Chu, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Mar. 2024
While blatant sabotage explains the current immigration impasse, however, there’s something else lurking behind it: Trump and those around him are profoundly hostile to immigration in general.
—Paul Krugman, The Mercury News, 8 Feb. 2024
Verb
Ukraine has long warned that Russian spies were active across Europe and working to sabotage its defense against Russia's invasion, in particular in Germany.
—Carlo Angerer, NBC News, 18 Apr. 2024
Both countries have targeted merchant ships with links to their opponents, as well as carried out cyberattacks on one another, and Israel has repeatedly sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program.
—Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2024
This led him to sabotage his colleagues’ surgeries, Simonton said in her post Friday.
—Nicole Lopez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Apr. 2024
Iran has also built a significant overseas intelligence presence capable of sabotaging local infrastructure and supporting regional opposition movements.
—Jon B. Alterman, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2024
Ultimately, Scott argues that those three years of code changes and polite emails were likely not spent sabotaging multiple software projects, but rather building up a history of credibility in preparation for the sabotage of XZ Utils specifically—and potentially other projects in the future.
—Andy Greenberg and Matt Burgess, WIRED, 3 Apr. 2024
What’s different now is his open alliance with Republican states that are willing to sabotage the federal government at his behest.
—Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 31 Mar. 2024
His obsession with success sabotaged relationships.
—Steve Martin, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2024
The accusations of election fraud weren’t just anonymous, however: In 2022, Lake accused Richer of sabotaging her campaign for governor by incorrectly printing 300,000 ballots that were subsequently discounted.
—David Gilbert, WIRED, 19 Mar. 2024
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.
Dictionary Entries Near sabotage
Cite this Entry
“Sabotage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sabotage. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
sabotage
1 of 2 noun
sab·o·tage
ˈsab-ə-ˌtäzh
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
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
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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