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Sabotage vs Subterfuge - What's the difference?

sabotage | subterfuge |

As nouns the difference between sabotage and subterfuge

is that sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction while subterfuge is an indirect or deceptive device or stratagem; a blind. Refers especially to war and politics.

As a verb sabotage

is to deliberately destroy or damage something in order to prevent it from being successful.

sabotage

English

(wikipedia sabotage)

Noun

(-)
  • A deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction.
  • (military) An act or acts with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of a country by willfully injuring or destroying, or attempting to injure or destroy, any national defense or war materiel, premises, or utilities, to include human and natural resourcesJP 1-02 Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms ..

    • Verb

    (sabotag)
  • to deliberately destroy or damage something in order to prevent it from being successful
    • The railway line had been sabotaged by enemy commandos
  • * 2014 , , " Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter", The Guardian , 18 October 2014:
    • 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.

    See also

    * terrorism

    References

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    subterfuge

    English

    (wikipedia subterfuge)

    Noun

  • (countable) An indirect or deceptive device or stratagem; a blind. Refers especially to war and politics.
    • Overt subterfuge in a region nearly caused a minor accident.
  • * 2010 , (Clare Vanderpool), (Moon Over Manifest)
    • How’s the spy hunt going? Uncovered any subterfuge ?
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge —a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}
  • (uncountable) Deception; misrepresentation of the true nature of an activity.