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 A. Kissinger

a political land mine

Synonyms

• 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

Finland’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to pull out of a major international treaty on antipersonnel land mines Thursday as the Nordic country seeks to boost its defenses against an increasingly assertive Russia next door. —Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2025

Artem lost his leg when a land mine exploded on the front lines in Kharkiv. —ABC News, 8 June 2025

Here’s a villain getting blown up by a land mine and their body being fed to pigs. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 27 Mar. 2025

The United States never signed the treaty, but in 2022 the Biden administration prohibited the use of antipersonnel land mines outside the Korean Peninsula. —Sarah Yager, Foreign Affairs, 14 Jan. 2025

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