"spike someone's guns" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From the wartime practice of welding a metal spike into the touch hole of a cannon (generally done to enemy guns by raiders, or to one's own guns if forced to abandon them in a retreat), making the cannon impossible to fire.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spikes someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spiking someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spiked someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spiked someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "spike someone's guns"
      },
      "expansion": "spike someone's guns (third-person singular simple present spikes someone's guns, present participle spiking someone's guns, simple past and past participle spiked someone's guns)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 205",
          "text": "But whatever the Russians may have felt (and, apparently, still do feel) about Shakespear, his superiors were delighted by the way he had so skilfully spiked the Tsar's guns by liberating his subjects.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 November 8, John Crace, The Guardian",
          "text": "Labour is known to be worried about the Cameron effect and might attempt to spike his guns.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To frustrate a person's efforts or designs; to undercut, to render helpless."
      ],
      "id": "en-spike_someone's_guns-en-verb-1pV5eK2G",
      "links": [
        [
          "undercut",
          "undercut"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "spike someone's guns"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "From the wartime practice of welding a metal spike into the touch hole of a cannon (generally done to enemy guns by raiders, or to one's own guns if forced to abandon them in a retreat), making the cannon impossible to fire.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spikes someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spiking someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spiked someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spiked someone's guns",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "spike someone's guns"
      },
      "expansion": "spike someone's guns (third-person singular simple present spikes someone's guns, present participle spiking someone's guns, simple past and past participle spiked someone's guns)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 205",
          "text": "But whatever the Russians may have felt (and, apparently, still do feel) about Shakespear, his superiors were delighted by the way he had so skilfully spiked the Tsar's guns by liberating his subjects.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 November 8, John Crace, The Guardian",
          "text": "Labour is known to be worried about the Cameron effect and might attempt to spike his guns.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To frustrate a person's efforts or designs; to undercut, to render helpless."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "undercut",
          "undercut"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "spike someone's guns"
}