Idiom idiom
psychological warfare
Meaning
A mentally manipulative approach to warfare involving use of techniques to demoralize or intimidate someone into surrender.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The coach uses psychological warfare to distract the other team.”
“During the intense contract negotiations, the manager used psychological warfare to make his opponents doubt their own position.”
“The dictator employed sophisticated psychological warfare, spreading rumors and fear throughout the city to ensure the population remained too intimidated to organize any resistance.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026