undermineverb [ T ]
uk/ˌʌn.dəˈmaɪn/us/ˌʌn.dɚˈmaɪn/C2 to make someone less confident, less powerful, or less likely to succeed, or to make something weaker, often gradually:
The president has accused two cabinet members of working secretly to undermine his position/him.
Criticism just undermines their confidence.
More examples
- A succession of scandals and revelations has undermined the government over the past year.
- Suddenly she just turned on me and accused me of undermining her.
- The country's economic position has been seriously undermined by this affair.
- He's been trying to undermine her position by spreading rumours about her.
- If you continually criticize children you can seriously undermine their confidence.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Upsetting and destabilizing
- bring
- bring sb down
- delegitimize
- destabilize
- dislocate
- disrupt
- knock/throw sb for a loop idiom
- loop
- make waves idiom
- put the skids under sth idiom
- rock
- rock the boat idiom
- scupper
- stir
- turn sth upside down idiom
- undercut
- upset
- upside down
- wave
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