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# undermine

«undermine» in Mova's school dictionary: **to make it weaker little by little, often secretly** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (undermine, undermines, undermined, undermining)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To undermine something is to make it weaker little by little, often secretly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#m1)

2) To undermine someone is to make them less confident or less respected. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#m2)

3) To undermine also means to dig under something, like a wall or cliff, so it may fall. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In stories and lessons on friendship, undermining someone by teasing or gossip hurts their confidence. In science and geography, the sea undermines cliffs by wearing away the bottom. Phrases: undermine confidence, undermine authority.

### examples

- Constant teasing can undermine a child's confidence. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#x1)
- Waves undermine the cliffs until they fall. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#x2)
- Don't undermine your teacher by talking over her. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#x3)
- The lies undermined their friendship. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#x4)
- Water undermined the old wall. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#x5)
- Eating junk food can undermine your health. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#x6)
- And receiving permission they began to dig, and when the messengers had almost undermined the Capitol they stole away as secretly as they had come. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/#x7)

### note

Past: undermined. Not the same as «underline» (draw a line under words). Close words: weaken, damage.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «undermine» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/undermine/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.