monkeywrenching means the commission of usually illegal but nonviolent acts of sabotage motivated by environmentalism. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why this word is great
MONKEYWRENCHING — [Noun] The clandestine, generally illegal but nonviolent sabotage of machinery or property, motivated by a radical defense of the natural world. From the noun phrase 'monkey wrench' (a type of adjustable wrench) + the suffix '-ing' (denoting action or practice), popularized by environmental activist Edward Abbey in the 1975 novel 'The Monkey Wrench Gang'. Unlike 'ecoterrorism' (which implies violent harm and instills terror) or 'civil disobedience' (which is public protest that accepts legal consequence), monkeywrenching is a secretive, tactical strike against the tools of exploitation, seeking to delay, not destroy, and targeting property alone. It is the silent spiking of a logger's road, the midnight dismantling of a surveyor's stake, or the careful pouring of sand into a bulldozer's fuel tank—a desperate, physical poetry of impediment, where the only sound intended is the grinding halt of progress.
noun
- The commission of usually illegal but nonviolent acts of sabotage motivated by environmentalism.“The solitary and relatively anonymous character of monkeywrenching gave that activity a peculiar role within the movement. To openly discuss specific actions was to invite arrest; in theory, Earth First!ers^([sic]) could not, therefore, discuss monkeywrenching activities in detail at their gatherings.”