sandbag
Americanverb (used with object)
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to furnish with sandbags.
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to hit or stun with a sandbag.
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Informal.
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to set upon violently; attack from or as if from ambush.
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to coerce or intimidate, as by threats.
The election committee was sandbagged into nominating the officers for a second term.
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to thwart or cause to fail or be rejected, especially surreptitiously or without warning.
He sandbagged our proposal with his snide remarks to the boss.
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Poker. to deceive (one or more opponents) into remaining in the pot by refraining from betting on a strong hand, then raising the bet in a later round.
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Informal. to gain an advantage over (one or more competitors) by concealing one's abilities or other strengths early in a game or other competitive activity.
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Informal. to gain an advantage by concealing or downplaying the strengths of (something).
companies that sandbag their earnings estimates and then easily beat them to make everyone happy.
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verb (used without object)
noun
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a sack filled with sand used for protection against gunfire, floodwater, etc, or as ballast in a balloon, ship, etc
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a bag filled with sand and used as a weapon
verb
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to protect or strengthen with sandbags
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to hit with or as if with a sandbag
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finance to obstruct (an unwelcome takeover bid) by prolonging talks in the hope that an acceptable bidder will come forward
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sandbagsimple
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sandbagssimple
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have sandbaggedperfect
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has sandbaggedperfect
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am sandbaggingprogressive
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are sandbaggingprogressive
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is sandbaggingprogressive
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have been sandbaggingperfect progressive
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has been sandbaggingperfect progressive
Past
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sandbaggedsimple
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had sandbaggedperfect
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was sandbaggingprogressive
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were sandbaggingprogressive
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had been sandbaggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sandbag
Explanation
A sandbag is a big bag of sand. If a hurricane is coming, chuck a sandbag or two by the beach house to keep the water out. Also, to sandbag someone is to trick or bully them into doing something. Sand is inexpensive and heavy, which is why sandbags are used for jobs like protecting vehicles and buildings during bombings or storms, or balancing the total weight on a boat. When you use sandbag as a verb, it either means to protect with sandbags or to deceive or coerce someone to get something you want. When you pretend that you're terrible at basketball just so you can beat your cousin in one-on-one, you sandbag her.
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.
See Examples For:
Ultimately, Bertrand removes a 50-pound sandbag from the counterweight bin, tightens the sling, and realigns the wooden trough.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2025
He added that locals have been trying, "to sandbag as many buildings as we can", as well as board up windows and get the island's clam farms secured.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2024
And he has had spills in the public eye: falling off a bicycle, tripping over a sandbag.
From New York Times ● Feb. 10, 2024
Nearby on Berkeley Avenue, a man with a shovel filled a sandbag from a pile of dirt sitting outside a construction site, surrounded by caution tape.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2023
Then I sever the rope that holds the sandbag for boxing, and the bag splits open as it slams to the ground.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
In New Orleans, sandbags are being distributed to stave off flood waters.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
"What you're seeing now is the most remarkable sight we haven't seen in 10 years," Keelung restaurant owner Penny Pan, 48, said as her husband placed sandbags at the entrance to their eatery.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
The onslaught, largely from the air, has bewildered curators and aid agencies who thought they had figured out how to protect artworks and artifacts from conflicts, using everything from sandbags to padded crates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Belfast City Council has issued a reminder that sandbags are available if people think their homes are at immediate risk of flooding.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2026
“Yes. And Chaim. So we hid. All day, and I looked through a hole between the sandbags, just a tiny hole, but I could see…” His eyes squeeze shut.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
Scholz visited Reichertshofen, north of Munich, inspecting a sandbagged river bank and meeting regional officials including Markus Söder, Bavaria’s governor.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
"The president called to check on me. I told him I got sandbagged," McConnell joked to reporters, referencing President Joe Biden's explanation for his fall last month.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2023
The hallmarks of a wartime capital, though, were unmistakable: sandbagged statuary, rusted “hedgehog” tank traps, checkpoints on roads leading to the city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2023
"Rather than wait for any response from the defense, the government sandbagged the process, filing this letter at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening," Bankman-Fried's lawyers wrote.
From Reuters ● Jan. 28, 2023
The ground-floor windows had been sandbagged, and every skylight cemented over.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Starting any new car company in America, let alone an electric one, requires uncanny maneuvering and persistence against every kind of bureaucratic, regulatory and political sandbagging.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
Institute experts also looked at the possibility of models "sandbagging" - or strategically hiding their true capabilities from testers.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2025
In a further sandbagging of any big-city swagger Seattle has left, its citizens will have to drive to a Walgreens near suburban Issaquah if they need a pharmacist’s help in the wee hours.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 1, 2023
Emergency authorities received 50 calls for assistance, mostly for sandbagging of properties and help plugging leaking roofs, from residents in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state, due to Sunday's deluge.
From Reuters ● Apr. 2, 2023
The sandbagging on the ground-floor windows was reinforced, and civilian contractors were on the roofs checking the firmness of the chimney stacks and the concreted skylights.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
