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Sandbag Verb Order Began Coerce Crude Strategy One's

Sandbag, a verb that originated in the 19th century describing a blunt-force attack with a sand-filled bag, now metaphorically means to conceal one's true position or intent to gain an advantage. It can also mean to treat someone unfairly.

Sandbag, a verb that originated in the 19th century describing a blunt-force attack with a sand-filled bag, now metaphorically means to conceal one's true position or intent to gain an advantage. It can also mean to treat someone unfairly.

Word sandbag
Date December 7, 2018
Type verb
Syllables SAND-bag
Etymology In the 19th century, the verb sandbag began to be used to describe the act of bludgeoning someone with a small, sand-filled bag—a tactic employed by ruffians, usually as a prelude to robbing their victims. The verb went on to develop metaphorical extensions, such as "to coerce by crude means." By the 1940s, it was being used of a strategy in which a poker player with a good hand bets weakly, in order to draw other players into holding on to their hands and raising the bet. The use of sandbag has since evolved to refer to a general strategy of playing down one's position in order to gain some sort of advantage.
Examples Management must have realized that reading employee survey responses aloud at the company-wide meeting would make employees feel sandbagged, but they chose to do it anyway.

"Lock's season began with Heisman Trophy dreams. It has detoured toward a familiar and unfortunate destination, the place where the quarterback's career numbers are sandbagged by his struggles when the spotlight shines." — Ben Frederickson, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3 Nov. 2018
Definition 1 : to bank, stop up, or weight with sandbags
2 a : to hit or stun with or as if with a sandbag
b : to treat unfairly or harshly
c : to coerce by crude means
d : to conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent especially in order to take advantage over : to hide the truth about oneself so as to gain an advantage over another

Tags: wordoftheday::verb

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