COUNTERMINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does countermine mean? 

• COUNTERMINE (noun)
  The noun COUNTERMINE has 1 sense:

1. (military) a tunnel dug to defeat similar activities by the enemy

  Familiarity information: COUNTERMINE used as a noun is very rare.

• COUNTERMINE (verb)
  The verb COUNTERMINE has 2 senses:

1. destroy property or hinder normal operations

2. destroy enemy mines with one's own mines

  Familiarity information: COUNTERMINE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COUNTERMINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(military) a tunnel dug to defeat similar activities by the enemy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("countermine" is a kind of...):

countermeasure (an action taken to offset another action)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Derivation:

countermine (destroy enemy mines with one's own mines)

• COUNTERMINE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they countermine    ... he / she / it countermines   
Past simple: countermined   
Past participle: countermined   
-ing form: countermining   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Destroy property or hinder normal operations

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

counteract; countermine; sabotage; subvert; undermine; weaken

Context example:

The Resistance sabotaged railroad operations during the war

Hypernyms (to "countermine" is one way to...):

disobey (refuse to go along with; refuse to follow; be disobedient)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "countermine"):

derail (cause to run off the tracks)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Destroy enemy mines with one's own mines

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Context example:

We countermined the banks of the river

Hypernyms (to "countermine" is one way to...):

mine (lay mines)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

countermine ((military) a tunnel dug to defeat similar activities by the enemy)

 Context examples 

You know now, and they know in part already, and will know in full before long, what it is to cross my path. They should have kept their energies for use closer to home. Whilst they played wits against me—against me who commanded nations, and intrigued for them, and fought for them, hundreds of years before they were born—I was countermining them.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea fights, ships sunk with a thousand men, twenty thousand killed on each side, dying groans, limbs flying in the air, smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under horses’ feet, flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases, left for food to dogs and wolves and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning, and destroying.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)