sap the foundations of
verb
Roget 162: be destroyed &c.; perish; fall to the ground; tumble, topple; go to pieces, fall to pieces; break up; crumble to dust; go to the dogs, go to the wall, go to smash, go to shivers, go to wreck, go to pot, go to wrack and ruin; go by the board, go all to smash; be all over, be all up, be all with; totter to its fall. destroy; do away with, make away with; nullify; annual etc. 756; sacrifice, demolish; tear up; overturn, overthrow, overwhelm; upset, subvert, put an end to; seal the doom of, do in, do for, dish [Slang], undo; break up, cut up; break down, cut down, pull down, mow down, blow down, beat down; suppress, quash, put down, do a job on; cut short, take off, blot out; dispel, dissipate, dissolve; consume. smash, crash, quell, squash, squelch, crumple up, shatter, shiver; batter to pieces, tear to pieces, crush to pieces, cut to pieces, shake to pieces, pull to pieces, pick to pieces; laniate†; nip; tear to rags, tear to tatters; crush to atoms, knock to atoms; ruin; strike out; throw over, knock down over; fell, sink, swamp, scuttle, wreck, shipwreck, engulf, ingulf†, submerge; lay in ashes, lay in ruins; sweep away, erase, wipe out, expunge, raze; level with the dust, level with the ground; waste; atomize, vaporize. deal destruction, desolate, devastate, lay waste, ravage gut; disorganize; dismantle etc. (render useless) 645; devour, swallow up, sap, mine, blast, bomb, blow to smithereens, drop the big one, confound; exterminate, extinguish, quench, annihilate; snuff out, put out, stamp out, trample out; lay in the dust, trample in the dust; prostrate; tread under foot; crush under foot, trample under foot; lay the ax to the root of; make short work of, make clean sweep of, make mincemeat of; cut up root and branch, chop into pieces, cut into ribbons; fling to the winds, scatter to the winds; throw overboard; strike at the root of, sap the foundations of, spring a mine, blow up, ravage with fire and sword; cast to the dogs; eradicate etc. 301. ... show more
adjective
Roget 659: unimproved etc. (improve) etc. 658; deteriorated etc. v.; altered, altered for the worse; injured etc. v.; sprung; withering, spoiling etc. v.; on the wane, on the decline; tabid†; degenerate; marescent†; worse; the worse for, all the worse for; out of repair, out of tune; imperfect etc. 651; the worse for wear; battered; weathered, weather-beaten; stale, passe, shaken, dilapidated, frayed, faded, wilted, shabby, secondhand, threadbare; worn, worn to a thread, worn to a shadow, worn to the stump, worn to rags; reduced, reduced to a skeleton; far gone; tacky [U.S.]. decayed etc. v.; moth-eaten, worm-eaten; mildewed, rusty, moldy, spotted, seedy, time-worn, moss-grown; discolored; effete, wasted, crumbling, moldering, rotten, cankered, blighted, tainted; depraved etc. (vicious) 945; decrepid†, decrepit; broke, busted, broken, out of commission, hors de combat [Fr.], out of action, broken down; done, done for, done up; worn out, used up, finished; beyond saving, fit for the dust hole, fit for the wastepaper basket, past work etc. (useless) 645. at a low ebb, in a bad way, on one's last legs; undermined, deciduous; nodding to its fall etc. (destruction) 162; tottering etc. (dangerous) 665; past cure etc. (hopeless) 859; fatigued etc. 688; retrograde etc. (retrogressive) 283; deleterious etc. 649. ... show more
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