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

Because there are traps, and there are tricks, and there are land mines. —Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair, 20 Feb. 2026

In a world where Americans have an average of five credit cards each, Laplanche warned of a financial landscape full of land mines. —Diane Brady, Fortune, 17 Feb. 2026

Back in 1997, in Huambo, Angola, just a few miles from one of the sources of the Okavango, my mother walked through a live minefield being cleared by the HALO Trust, a humanitarian land mine clearance charity. —Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 29 Jan. 2026

Russia has used land mines in its invasion of Ukraine, and in July accused Ukraine of doing so too, after Ukraine announced its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention. —Reuters, NBC news, 14 Jan. 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