countermine
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See also: counter-mine
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]countermine (plural countermines)
- A mine used by defenders to intercept an enemy mine or tunnel.
- 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 436:
- Normally the threat would have been dealt with by means of a counter-mine, but the tunnel was now far too close for that.
- An underground gallery excavated to intercept and destroy the mining of an enemy.
- A stratagem or plot by which another stratagem or project is defeated.
- a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
- Thinking himself contemned, knowing no countermine against contempt but terror.
Verb
[edit]countermine (third-person singular simple present countermines, present participle countermining, simple past and past participle countermined)
- To plot opposition; to frustrate the initiatives of another.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter III, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VI:
- […] every gamester will agree how necessary it is to know exactly the play of another, in order to countermine him.
- (transitive, intransitive) to sap hostile mining.
- 1923, Frank Fox, “The Man-Made Earthquake”, in Charles Francis Horne, The Great Events of the Great War[1], volume 5:
- […] so Fritz could sleep easily in his trench, so far as mines were concerned; and Fritz, confident in his Herr Professors, altogether neglected any attempt to counter-mine.
Synonyms
[edit]- (to plot opposition): counterplot