magnetic mine
- noun
- Specialized
:
mina magnética
- Divers employed special equipment to locate and disarm a magnetic mine that had been discovered.
Examples
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The experts warned that the waters near the harbor were still dangerous due to magnetic mines.
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It's an old magnetic mine, all right.
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It must be a magnetic mine.
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During the naval exercise, they practiced avoiding detection by magnetic mines.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'magnetic' (relating to magnetism or attraction to metal) modifies 'mine' (an explosive device), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it is a mine that operates by magnetic detection. This follows a standard adjective+noun pattern and is cross-linguistically transparent, despite being a technical subtype of mine.
Etymology
Magnetic mine is an underwater explosive whose name shows how it works: magnetic means it reacts to a ship's metal hull and mine means an explosive device. When the mine 'senses' the ship's metal it 'explodes', so the name means an explosive that goes off when a metal ship comes near.
