subvert
sub-VURTverbMeaning to secretly weaken or overturn something established
Memory hook SUB-VERT: overturn it from BELOW. Sneaky Rex crawls under the king’s banquet table and tips it over from beneath. To subvert is to overturn from underneath.
The sneaky player tried to subvert the rules by changing the score sheet when no one was looking.
In context The spy did not fight the kingdom openly; instead he worked to subvert it from within, quietly turning the queen’s own advisers against her.
Similar undermine, overthrow, sabotage, weaken
Opposite support, uphold, strengthen
From Latin subvertere, “to turn from beneath, to overturn”: sub (under) + vertere (to turn).