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

• booby trap
• catch
• catch-22
• gimmick
• gotcha
• hitch
• joker
• pitfall
• snag

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

Latvia in April voted to leave the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which bans the use, production and transfer of land mines, citing Russian aggression toward Ukraine. —Eve Sampson, New York Times, 16 May 2025

The country hopes to be rid of land mines completely by 2030. —Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 29 Apr. 2025

Experts estimate that tens of thousands of land mines remain buried across Syria, particularly in former front-line regions like rural Idlib. —Arkansas Online, 21 Apr. 2025

Libya is under a level 4 advisory because of crime, terrorism, unexploded land mines, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict. —Faisal Kutty, Newsweek, 12 Mar. 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