sandbag
/ˈsan(d)baɡ
/noun
A bag filled with sand, typically used for defensive purposes or as ballast in a boat.Finally, sand mixed with archeological fragments has been used to fill sandbags intended for protecting military positions....
- They hired local men as translators or to fill sandbags at the camp.
- Along the perimeter, sandbags are being filled and wire is laid.
verb (sandbags, sandbagging, sandbagged) [with object]
1 (usually as adjective sandbagged) Barricade using sandbags: boarded-up shopfronts and sandbagged doorways...
- The containers in which the soldiers live and operate could be sandbagged on the exterior to protect the occupants from small arms fire and fragmentation.
- The device was sandbagged, the area cleared and then the tranquillity shattered briefly as a sympathetic charge disposed of the shell.
- For each section, terram was laid, sandbags placed to hold it in position, and then the lines of historic palisades and piles were sandbagged.
2Hit or knock over with or as if with a blow from a sandbag.For Daniel's son, history will sandbag him out of a pleasantly drifting existence as he grapples with questions of race and confronts his own colonisation....
- Microsoft can, and you can bet, probably will use this procedure to sandbag future litigation: it adds several months to any future case as the respective lawyers set their meters running.
- Adverse customer reaction will quite possibly sandbag this one, but remember to ask yourself if you really need that new SIM right now.
2.1North American Coerce or bully: he was trying to sandbag me into attempting one of his leg-snapping climbs...
- He had already announced that he was planning to leave the program to work on a book, but he knew he had been sandbagged, and he didn't like it.
- But they sandbagged her, so the last thing she was going to do was take insults from the man who almost ruined her career.
- This in itself is A-OK, but such countries run the risk of being sandbagged by protectionist tariffs initiated by neighbouring nations.
3 [no object] Deliberately underperform in a race or competition to gain an unfair advantage.Either they sandbagged during qualifying and practice or they gave very high downforce to the cars to make them slower during those sessions.
Derivatives
sandbagger
- Now he plays with ‘an eclectic group of thieves, sandbaggers and miscreants’ at public courses like Brookside and Griffith Park.
- It's a step that can be used to root out sandbaggers who inflate scores posted in casual play.
- Kevin, who just two days before was hoisted upon the shoulders of his adoring fellow-competitors, is now, in true Pattaya fashion, being vilified as a sandbagger.