subvert
/səbˈvəːt
/verb [with object]
Undermine the power and authority of (an established system or institution): an attempt to subvert democratic government...
- Please reject this underhanded attempt to subvert democracy in Illinois.
- Even exercising our vote may turn out to be no more than palliative in a democracy continually subverted by the power of money.
- She clearly sees this as an attempt by the Republicans to steal her vote and subvert the system.
Synonyms
destabilize, unsettle, overthrow, overturn;
bring down, bring about the downfall of, topple, depose, oust, supplant, unseat, dethrone, disestablish, dissolve;
disrupt, wreak havoc on, sabotage, ruin, upset, destroy, annihilate, demolish, wreck, undo, undermine, undercut, weaken, impair, damage
corrupt, pervert, warp, deprave, defile, debase, distort, contaminate, poison, embitter;
vitiate
Derivatives
subverter
- More importantly, and with wider relevance, the war was intended as a substantial demonstration of the continuing validity of the regulative order as against any would-be subverter of it.
- It cannot, for example, accommodate republicans, or socialists, or supra-nationalist subverters of British sovereignty.
- He won't win lots of popularity contests, but he's no subverter of the system's integrity.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French subvertir or Latin subvertere, from sub- 'from below' + vertere 'to turn'.