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"It does not enhance the privacy protections of American citizens, and it surely undermines American security by taking one more tool from our war fighters, in my view, at exactly the wrong time".
Unsurprisingly, McDonald's itself argues strongly that work in the service sector is valuable – it tried to have the phrase McJob removed from the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007, and in December 2011, McDonald's UK chief executive Jill McDonald told the Guardian the word "undermines the hard work and achievements not only of our people but of all those working in the food service industry".
Instead Gove sneers at them, undermines them, devalues their professionalism, and saves his praise for the millionaire who graciously allows his name to appear on the school gates, and phones up in the morning to ask what the attendance figures are – but not until he has phoned round his stores and checked the previous day's sales figures.
Supporters of the sex industry respond by denying the scale of human trafficking because it undermines a key plank in their argument that women freely choose to go into prostitution, and the state therefore needs to butt out of their private lives.
Electing the president of the European commission would not mean much if that person cannot change the rules; but if the rules are politicised, then this undermines the whole project of making markets believe in their stability.
"While the government of Yemen appreciates foreign governments' concern for the safety of their citizens, the evacuation of embassy staff serves the interests of extremists and undermines exceptional co-operation between Yemen and the international alliance against terrorism.
And it also undermines a lot of the culture, the fabric of life, the sense of self-determination …We made this devil's bargain on rice.
It undermines the cardinal principle of the post-1945 worderorder, namely that the powerful cannot simply take what they want by force.
But a focus solely on corporate interests undermines the issues at the heart of this debate.
Global warming has not undergone a 'pause' or 'hiatus', according to US government research that undermines one of the key arguments used by sceptics to question climate science.
The government's reluctance to implement the 2005 Hirst judgment on votes for inmates "undermines its credibility when invoking the rule of law to pressurise Russia – and other countries in a similar position – to comply with international human rights obligations", the JCHR said.
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The verb "undermines " primarily functions to express how something weakens, diminishes, or subverts another entity. As Ludwig AI indicates, it signifies a process of gradual erosion or lessening of effectiveness. Examples show it often describes the impact of actions or policies on abstract concepts such as security, trust, or values.
Expression frequency: Very common
