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for the purpose of causing to fall or be overthrown; to form a mine under; to sap; as, to undermine a wall. A vast rock undermined from one end to the other, and a highway running through it. Addison.

One who undermines.

To corrupt or undermine in morals; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt or untrustworthy in morals, in discipline, in courage, spirit, etc.; to weaken in spirit or efficiency. The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. Walsh. The vices of the nobility had dem…

ng; extension; dissemination; circulation; dispersion. A diffusion of knowledge which has undermined superstition. Burke.

other, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls. Robynson (More's Utopia). To dig down, to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall. -- To dig from, out of, out, or up, to get out or obtain by digging; as, to dig coal from or out of a mine; to dig out fossils; to dig up a tree. The preposition is…

parts; construction; shape; form. It our perfection of so frail a make As every plot can undermine and shake Dryden. On the make,bent upon making great profits; greedy of gain. [Low, U. S.]

ay, or otherwise remove, the substratum or foundation of; to lay a mine under; to sap; to undermine; hence, to ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means. They mined the walls. Hayward. Too lazy to cut down these immense trees, the spoilers... had mined them, and placed a quantity of gunpowder in the cavity. Sir W…

bout eighty feet of shale supporting a greater thickness of limestone, which is gradually undermined by the removal of the shale. See Chart of Geology.

To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of. Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, Their houses fell upon their household gods. Dryden.

t; corrupt; as, sinister aims. Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. Bacon. He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts. South. He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself. Sir W. Scott.

To overthrow, undermine, or force away, in order to get a substitute in place of. You never will supplant the received ideas of God. Landor.

To dig under or beneath; to undermine. [Obs.] Wyclif.

To undermine. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

To injure by working secretly; to destroy or overthrow by clandestine measure; to undermine. But thou from loving England art so far, That thou hast underwrought his lawful king. Shak.