saboteur

/ˌˈsæbəˌˈtʌr/

Other forms: saboteurs

A saboteur is a person who makes a mess of a situation on purpose. You might call your little brother a saboteur for letting the air out of your bicycle tires, but you could be a saboteur in return by filling his shoes with cold spaghetti.

Saboteur is a noun that is fairly new to the English language; it was first used in the early 1900s, and it refers to a person who deliberately destroys or obstructs something. It comes from the French word, saboter, which really and truly means to kick something with an old-fashioned wooden shoe. We can only hope that one day the word Nikeur might enter the English language to mean a person who kicks something with a sneaker.

Definitions of saboteur

1. noun

   someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks
   synonyms: diversionist, wrecker

   types:

   sleeper

   a spy or saboteur or terrorist planted in an enemy country who lives there as a law-abiding citizen until activated by a prearranged signal

   type of:

   destroyer, ruiner, undoer, uprooter, waster

   a person who destroys or ruins or lays waste to
2. noun

   a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader
   synonyms: fifth columnist

   type of:

   traitor, treasonist

   someone who betrays his country by committing treason