[ 'sabətα:ʒ ]
■ verb deliberately destroy or obstruct, especially for political or military advantage.
■ noun the action of sabotaging.
Word History
Sabotage comes from the French verb saboter , which originally meant 'kick or strike with sabots', a sabot being a heavy wooden clog. Later it came to mean 'wilfully destroy' and was first used in English in the early 20th century, in reference to the wilful destruction by a workforce of their employer's property during a strike.