![]() Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. If you hear a mom berating her child as he studies for a spelling bee, and you can hear how she's undermining his confidence, would you speak up and stop her? If we offer kids rewards for reading books, we risk undermining their belief that reading is valuable on its own. Someone or something's credibility or prestige The economy, or specific markets within the economy The power or authority of a leader or a court, or democracy itself The prevention, detection, or treatment of diseases or other problems ![]() Processes, or our ability to get something done What kind of things get undermined? Often it's In other words, we talk about things undermining people, people undermining things, people undermining other people, and things undermining other things. It's both things and people that can undermine each other. Undermining is generally a bad thing that is, we often accuse people and things of undermining good things that ought to stand firm. Undermined, undermining, underminable, underminer Likewise, someone or something undermines someone or something.) You eat a banana, try a game, and want a new phone. (Like "eat," "try," and "want," all transitive verbs do something to an object. ![]() (And to undermine people is to ruin, weaken, or work against their ability to do something-again, in a sneaky way, as if you're tunneling underneath them.) To literally undermine something is to dig a tunnel under it.Īnd, figuratively, to undermine things is to ruin, weaken, or work against them in a sneaky way, as if you're digging a tunnel under them so they'll cave in. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with.Ī mine is a tunnel we dig so we can take valuable stuff out of the earth, and to mine is to dig that kind of tunnel. ![]() In case it's new to you, to undermine something is to weaken it, as if from beneath.Īnd to strengthen something, as if from beneath, is to under_ it. But I'm starting to appreciate it more and more for both its utility and the concrete image it places in our minds. To be honest, at first, I wasn't going to bother with the word undermine. ![]()
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