White-ant

verb, slang

verb, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To bring down from within; to undermine. Australia, colloquial

    "The white-anting of ATSIC has been brought about by the usual suspects."

Example

More examples

"The white-anting of ATSIC has been brought about by the usual suspects."

Etymology

From white ant (“termite”), suggesting the action of termites eating the inside of wooden building foundations, often leaving no outward evidence until the structure begins to crumble.

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