释义 |
sabotage, n. (ˈsæbətɑːʒ, ‖ sabɔtaʒ) [Fr., f. saboter to make a noise with sabots, to perform or execute badly, e.g. to ‘murder’ (a piece of music), to destroy wilfully (tools, machinery, etc.), f. sabot: see sabot and -age.] The malicious damaging or destruction of an employer's property by workmen during a strike or the like; hence gen. any disabling damage deliberately inflicted, esp. that carried out clandestinely in order to disrupt the economic or military resources of an enemy. Also transf., fig., and attrib.
1910Church Times 11 Nov. 631/2 We have lately been busy in deploring the sabotage of the French railway strikers. 1916Sydney Morning Herald 18 Oct., A shearing rouseabout,..charged..with having written a letter to Senator Lynch, threatening him and certain other Labour politicians and employers of Australia with acts of sabotage. 1918E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 528 Sabotage, wanton destruction of property to embarrass or injure an enemy; such as the smashing of machinery, flooding of mines, burning of wheat and grain, destroying fruit and provisions, dynamiting reservoirs and aqueducts, tying up railroads, etc. 1920Glasgow Herald 26 June 7 Forces are at work in Germany for the sabotage of the Treaty. 1931W. Martyn Scarlett Murder iv. 53 He was in that mood of smouldering rage which only sabotage would slake. 1948N.Y. Jrnl. American (Sunday Mail ed.) 9 May 1/5 Berger and Dasch gave..‘full and complete’ identification of all connected with the sabotage plot. 1955Times 27 Aug. 6/7 These were the most considerable sabotages of telephone lines which have yet occurred in this area. 1958Spectator 20 June 791/3 The most recent attack on him has been for cultural sabotage. 1977South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) 22 July 1/4 The border flare-up began on July 12, the radio said, when a four-man Libyan sabotage squad was arrested after crossing the border armed with machineguns and explosives. 1978T. Allbeury Lantern Network vii. 86 Langlois had led six-man teams on fifteen sabotage missions. 1979Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 20 Sept. 11a/5 The PLO has provided guns and sabotage devices to its IRA friends. Hence ˈsabotage v. trans., to ruin, destroy, or disable deliberately and maliciously (freq. by indirect means); ˈsabotaging vbl. n.
1918New Appeal 7 Dec. 1/2 Testimony..that the companies are sabotaging the government. 1920Glasgow Herald 20 Aug. 7 When the miners threaten to sabotage the commerce of the country struggling to get back to pre-war prosperity. 1923Ibid. 4 Jan. 4 The sabotaging of the Dual Monarchy, the revolt of the Yugoslav troops, [etc.]. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! v. 303 Technically speaking it [sc. the atonal school] sabotaged the moribund romantic tradition. 1941Sun (Baltimore) 22 Mar. 24/1 The fireworks bill..was passed by the Senate tonight..despite eleventh-hour attempts to sabotage it or delay enactment. 1975Times 14 Jan. 14/3 [Michael Foot] defended the social contract and weighed into the press for sabotaging it. |