saboter

sabotage, botch

verb sah-boh-TEH Rare

Origin: from 'sabot' (wooden shoe), referring to workers throwing shoes into machinery to disrupt it

Usage Note

Saboter can mean deliberate sabotage (saboter une mission) or careless bungling of a task (il a saboté le travail — he did a sloppy job). The noun sabotage is used in both senses. The etymology linking it to wooden clogs (sabots) thrown into machinery is a popular story, though linguists debate it.

Examples

"Quelqu'un a saboté le projet."

Natural Translation

Someone sabotaged the project.

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