land mine

noun

: a mine usually placed just below the surface of the ground and designed to be exploded usually by the weight of vehicles or troops passing over it

—often used figuratively

Every aspect of this scheme is a potential land mine.

—Henry Kissinger

a political land mine

Synonyms of land mine

• hitch
• risk
• snag
• booby trap

Examples of land mine in a Sentence

parents of teenagers never know when they might set off an emotional land mine

Recent Examples on the Web

Apopo says more than six million land mines may still be buried in the soil of Cambodia. —Scott Simon, NPR, 11 Apr. 2026

OpenAI’s paper conspicuously avoids specifying a corporate tax rate, a diplomatic omission that suggests the company knows where the political land mines are buried. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 7 Apr. 2026

Areas are roped off and dotted with signs warning of land mines, a hazard Cambodians know well after decades of civil war that ended in the late 1990. —ABC News, 23 Mar. 2026

In applications like land mine detection, a single mistake can be fatal. —Sagar Lekhak, The Conversation, 5 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for land mine

• affine
• airline
• align
• aline
• assign
• baseline
• beamline
• benign
• bloodline
• bovine
• byline
• canine

Kids Definition

land mine

noun

: a mine placed just below the surface of the ground and designed to be exploded by the weight of the vehicles or troops passing over it