English Explanatory Dictionary

spike someone's guns

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To frustrate a person's efforts or designs; to undercut, to render helpless.

Word forms

spike someone's guns spikes someone's guns spiking someone's guns spiked someone's guns

Etymology

From the wartime practice of welding a metal spike into the touch hole of a cannon (generally done to enemy guns by raiders, or to one's own guns if forced to abandon them in a retreat), making the cannon impossible to fire.

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