sabotage

See also: Sabotage

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

sabotage

Wikipedia

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French sabotage.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsæ.bəˌtɑːʒ/, /ˈsæ.bɒˌtɑːʒ/, (less commonly) /sæ.bɒˈtɑːʒ/^[1]^[2]
- Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsæb.əˌtɑʒ/, /ˌsæb.əˈtɑʒ/^[2]

Noun

sabotage (usually uncountable, plural sabotages)

A deliberate action aimed at weakening someone (or something, a nation, etc) or preventing them from being successful, through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction.

Derived terms

Translations

deliberate action of subversion, obstruction, disruption, destruction

Albanian: sabotim (sq) m
Arabic: أَعْمَال تَخْرِيبِيَّة m pl (ʔaʕmāl taḵrībiyya), تَخْرِيب m (taḵrīb)
Hijazi Arabic: تَخْريب m (taḵrīb)
Armenian: սաբոտաժ (hy) (sabotaž), դիվերսիա (hy) (diversia), նենգադուլ (hy) (nengadul) (rare), խափանարարություն (hy) (xapʻanararutʻyun) (Western Armenian)
Asturian: sabotaxe
Azerbaijani: təxribat (az), sabotaj, diversiya
Belarusian: сабата́ж m (sabatáž), шко́дніцтва n (škódnictva), дыве́рсія f (dyvjérsija), дывэ́рсія f (dyvérsija)
Bulgarian: сабота́ж (bg) m (sabotáž), диве́рсия (bg) f (divérsija)
Catalan: sabotatge m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 蓄意破壞 / 蓄意破坏 (xùyì pòhuài), 破壞 / 破坏 (zh) (pòhuài)
Czech: sabotáž (cs) f
Danish: sabotage c
Dutch: sabotage (nl) m
Esperanto: sabotado
Estonian: sabotaaž
Finnish: sabotaasi (fi)
French: sabotage (fr) m
Friulian: sabotaç m
Galician: sabotaxe f
Georgian: საბოტაჟი (ka) (saboṭaži), დივერსია (diversia)
German: Sabotage (de) f
Greek: δολιοφθορά (el) f (doliofthorá)
Hebrew: חַבָּלָה f (khabalá)
Hindi: तोड़-फोड़ f (toṛ-phoṛ), अंतर्ध्वंस m (antardhvans)
Hungarian: szabotázs (hu)
Icelandic: skemmdarverk (is) n
Indonesian: sabotase (id)
Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} sabotage
Irish: sabaitéireacht f
Italian: sabotaggio (it) m
Japanese: 破壊活動 (ja) (はかいかつどう, hakai katsudō), サボタージュ (ja) (sabotāju), サボタージ (sabotāji)
Kazakh: саботаж (sabotaj), бүлдірушілік (büldıruşılık), зияндық (ziändyq), зиянкестік (ziänkestık), қаскүнемдік (qaskünemdık), диверсия (diversiä)
Khmer: វិច្ឆេទកម្ម (vɨcceetĕəʼkam), អនត្ថការ (ʼaʼnatthaʼkaa)
Korean: 사보타주 (ko) (sabotaju), 방해공작(妨害工作) (banghaegongjak)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: sabotaj (ku)
Kyrgyz: саботаж (sabotaj), зыянкечтик (ky) (zıyankectik), кыянатчылык (kıyanatcılık), диверсия (ky) (diversiya)
Lao: ວິນາດສະກຳ (wi nāt sa kam)
Latvian: sabotāža f
Lithuanian: sabotažas m
Macedonian: сабота́жа f (sabotáža)
Malay: sabotaj
Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
Norwegian:
Bokmål: sabotasje (no) m
Old English: please add this translation if you can
Pashto: سبوتاژ m (sbotãž), خرابکاري f (xarābkārí), ورانکاري f (wrānkārí)
Persian:
Iranian Persian: سابوتاژ (fa) (sâbotâž), خَرابْکاری (xarâbkâri), تَخْریب (taxrib), اِخْلال (exlâl)
Piedmontese: sabotagi m
Polish: sabotaż (pl) m, szkodzenie (pl) n, dywersja (pl) f
Portuguese: sabotagem (pt) f
Romanian: sabotaj (ro) n, sabotare (ro) f, subminare (ro) f
Russian: сабота́ж (ru) m (sabotáž), вреди́тельство (ru) n (vredítelʹstvo), диве́рсия (ru) f (divérsija) (military or colloquial)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: сабота́жа f

Roman: sabotáža (sh) f
Slovak: sabotáž m
Slovene: sabotáža (sl) f
Spanish: sabotaje (es) m
Swahili: hujuma
Swedish: sabotage (sv) n
Tagalog: sabotahe
Tajik: коршиканӣ (koršikani), тахрибкорӣ (taxribkori), диверсия (diversiya), вайронкорӣ (vayronkori), харобкорӣ (tg) (xarobkori)
Thai: วินาศกรรม (wí-nâat-sà-gam)
Turkish: sabotaj (tr), tahribat (tr), baltalama (tr)
Turkmen: sabotaž, diwersiýa
Ukrainian: сабота́ж m (sabotáž), шкідни́цтво n (škidnýctvo), диве́рсія f (dyvérsija)
Urdu: تَخْرِیب کاری f (taxrīb kārī), سَبُو تاژ f (sabū tāź), سَبوتاژ f (sabotāź)
Uyghur: بۇزغۇنچىلىق (buzghunchiliq)
Uzbek: sabotaj (uz), zararkunandalik (uz), diversiya (uz), qoʻporuvchilik (uz)
Vietnamese: sự phá hoại (vi)
Volapük: ^{(please verify)} sabotaj
Walloon: please add this translation if you can
Welsh: difrod (cy) m
West Frisian: sabotaazje

Verb

sabotage (third-person singular simple present sabotages, present participle sabotaging, simple past and past participle sabotaged)

To deliberately destroy or damage something in order to prevent it from being successful.
The railway line had been sabotaged by enemy commandos.

Our plans were sabotaged.
- 1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 166-167:
  The Hedjaz Railway is best known for its connections to T. E. Lawrence, whose fame as "El Orens", the railway wrecker, spread quickly throughout Arabia. He arrived at Yenbo in December, 1916, and immediately started his campaign to sabotage the railway, but to keep it sufficiently in working order to allow supplies to reach Medina.
- 2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:
  Five minutes later, Southampton tried to mount their first attack, but Wickham sabotaged the move by tripping the rampaging Nathaniel Clyne, prompting the referee, Andre Marriner, to issue a yellow card. That was a lone blemish on an otherwise tidy start by Poyet’s team – until, that is, the 12th minute, when Vergini produced a candidate for the most ludicrous own goal in Premier League history.
- 2021 December 29, Drachinifel, 21:03 from the start, in The USN Pacific Submarine Campaign - The Dark Year (Dec'41 - Dec'42)‎^[2], archived from the original on 19 July 2022:
  The only amusing highlight was Gudgeon having managed to exploit U.S. codebreaking efforts to ambush and destroy the submarine I-173, albeit not for the lack of the Mark 14's trying to sabotage the effort, as the torpedo that had hit the sub had refused to detonate; it seemed, however, that the car-crash levels of kinetic energy involved in the dud simply ramming the sub had nonetheless done enough to fatally damage it.