noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A deliberate action aimed at weakening someone (or something, a nation, etc) or preventing them from being successful, through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction. uncountable, usually
2. 2
   a deliberate act of destruction or disruption in which equipment is damaged wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To deliberately destroy or damage something in order to prevent it from being successful.

   "The railway line had been sabotaged by enemy commandos."

2. 2
   destroy property or hinder normal operations wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

bafflebalkbankruptcyblastblockbouleversement

Antonyms

All antonyms

favor

Example

More examples

"Why did he dare sabotage the experiment?"

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French sabotage.

Related phrases

self-sabotageself-sabotage

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.