saboteur
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of saboteur
1920–25; < French, equivalent to sabot ( er ) to botch ( see sabotage) + -eur -eur
Explanation
A saboteur is a person who makes a mess of a situation on purpose. You might call your little brother a saboteur for letting the air out of your bicycle tires, but you could be a saboteur in return by filling his shoes with cold spaghetti. Saboteur is a noun that is fairly new to the English language; it was first used in the early 1900s, and it refers to a person who deliberately destroys or obstructs something. It comes from the French word, saboter, which really and truly means to kick something with an old-fashioned wooden shoe. We can only hope that one day the word Nikeur might enter the English language to mean a person who kicks something with a sneaker.
Vocabulary lists containing saboteur
Farewell to Manzanar
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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They Called Us Enemy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But they also assume anyone who disagrees with them is incompetent, delusional or even a saboteur, so they reject their opinions and ideas out of hand.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
But, like a slinky saboteur, RNA from that same hub may wind its way to all the other hubs.
From Science Daily • Dec. 21, 2023
In other fighting, Ukraine said it had thwarted an attempt overnight by a Russian eight-member saboteur group to cross its northeastern border in the Sumy region.
From Reuters • Oct. 12, 2023
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the alleged saboteur incursion.
From Seattle Times • May 22, 2023
“But that package was big. Is this the only thing you will give me? Is there no canned food there? Or are you saving it for your saboteur friend Alice?”
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
