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

There are different ways to demine territory, from using dogs to sniff out land mines to sappers—combat engineers focusing on clearing mines—manually working their way through an area, or operators remotely controlling large demining machines. —Ellie Cook, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Aug. 2025

In the rather chaotic encounter with journalists in the Oval Office, both Trump and Zelensky avoided stepping on any rhetorical land mines. —Ben Wedeman, CNN Money, 18 Aug. 2025

The ninth inning revealed other land mines. —Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 7 Aug. 2025

The fighting began last week after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers. —Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 2 Aug. 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