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Rick Jelliffe wrote:
>
> From: "Michael Kay" <michael.h.kay@ntlworld.com>
>
> > Can someone please explain the verb "to whiteant" so someone who is not
> > a native speaker of the American language?
>
following the oed, it would be an advantage to be a native speaker of australian english:
"To destroy in the manner of termites or white ants; to undermine eat away or sabotage."
with the earliest citation being to a passage from the glasgow herald from 1925, with an anscilliary definition, dated to 1908,
"In pl. With allusion to the supposed destruction of the brain by white ants, implying loss of sanity, sense or intelligence."
> Sorry, I see the dictionary labels it "colloquial". I am not British nor American.
> To "white-ant" is to subvert or undermine from within (an organisation or enterprise).
>
> A very useful for word for conspiracy theories. Someone who white-ants is not
> a white-ant but a white-anter, b.t.w. Examples below.
>
> Cheers
> Rick Jelliffe
>
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