verb
definition
To drain, suck or absorb from (tree, etc.).
definition
To exhaust the vitality of.
verb
definition
To strike with a sap (with a blackjack).
verb
definition
To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of.
definition
To pierce with saps.
definition
To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.
definition
To gradually weaken.
example
he saps my energy
definition
To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps.
noun
definition
The act by which something is sapped or depleted.
definition
The act of excavating trenches.
Examples of sapping in a Sentence
As the parliament of 1886 was drawing to a close, the dissensions among the Irish members, and the loss of their great leader, were visibly sapping the strength of the Nationalists.
His smile reassured her, sapping the ire and replacing it with peace.
By this time the besiegers were sapping under the escarps of the northern forts, and it would have been better to delay.
Ismails exactions from the Egyptian peasantry reacted on the army, causing discontent; and when he was tottering on the throne he instigated military demonstrations against his own government, and, by thus sapping the foundations of discipline, assisted Arabis revolution; the result was the battle of Tell el-Kebir, the British occupation, and the disbandment of the army, which at that time in Egypt proper consisted of 18,000 men.
The demon's pacing was frantic, both distracting her and sapping her strength.
He took no heed of the warnings uttered by those sage counsellors, Cambaceres and Talleyrand, against an invasion of Russia, while "the Spanish ulcer" was sapping the strength of the empire at the other extremity.
Many influences had, however, for some time been silently sapping the foundations of the old system.
Interest payments and overuse will end up sapping this resource before you know it, and you'll be left with a pile of unaccounted-for debt.