undermined

[ uhn-der-mahynd uhn-der-mahynd ]

adjective

1. attacked, weakened, or defeated by underhand or seemingly harmless actions or by imperceptible stages:

   Both the struggling students and the most gifted ones are receiving limited support from an undermined educational system.

2. weakened or made to collapse by removing underlying support, as by eroding or digging away the foundation:

   With the release of material from the undermined cliffs at these sites, we should have had far more sand to feed the beaches, not less.

3. deliberately weakened by an excavation or tunnel dug underneath, as by an enemy in war:

   When the town was besieged, its defenders abandoned the undermined walls and retired into the citadel.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of undermine.

Word History and Origins

Origin of undermined¹

undermine ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

She undermined the basic argument that content creators have made against AI firms: that the process of feeding their AI models data indiscriminately “scraped” from the internet inevitably involves using copyrighted content without permission.

From Los Angeles Times

They argue that the extensive list of chemicals has led to nearly universal warnings, which they say has undermined the law’s original intent and given consumers warning fatigue.

From Los Angeles Times

One week after the attacks of 9/11, Congress passed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which undermined its own power in Article I of the Constitution to declare war and weakened its powers of restraint on presidential actions carefully articulated in the 1973 War Powers Resolution, passed to guard against the very kind of secretive engagement in war that Nixon had unilaterally authorized in the Vietnam era.

From Salon

Former President Trump says the government should help residents whose homes are being undermined by shifting land in Rancho Palos Verdes.

From Los Angeles Times

But access to gender-affirming care could still be undermined by federal action.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• flawed