Definition of "sandbag"

sandbag

noun
plural sandbags
1. A sturdy sack filled with sand, generally used in large numbers to make defensive walls against flooding, bullets, or shrapnel.
2. A small bag filled with sand and used as a cudgel.
3. An engraver's leather cushion, etc.
4. (poker) A deceptive play whereby a player with a strong hand bets weakly or passively.
verb
third-person singular simple present sandbags, present participle sandbagging, simple past and past participle sandbagged
1. (transitive, intransitive) To construct a barrier of sandbags (around).
  Quotations
  The height “49 feet” became a mantra, as volunteers worked for weeks sandbagging and building to match that height.
  2007, Sheri O'Meara, Storms 2: Tales of Extreme Weather Events in Minnesota, D Media, page 69
2. (transitive) To strike someone with a sandbag or other object to disable or render unconscious.
3. (figurative, intransitive, originally US) To conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent in order to gain an advantage; (originally poker) to pretend to have a weak hand, as a strategy.
  Quotations
  Some felt that Roberts was sandbagging, because his mastery of the 250s wasn't really showing in practice or the heat.
  1976, Cycle World Magazine, volume 15, number 1 & 2, page 83
  The sandbagging manager is similarly deceptive. He has mastered the art of seeming harmless and without power, but in reality he carries far more authority and clout than one would be led to believe.
  1976, Richard H. Buskirk, Handbook of Managerial Tactics, Boston: Cahners Books, page 32
  When playing against a wild man, try to be in a position to pick off his bluffs without too many players remaining behind you who can benefit from the action by sandbagging (passing on big hands and waiting for “sport” to whoop up the betting).
  1981, Nesmith C. Ankeny, Poker Strategy: Winning with Game Theory, New York: Basic Books, page 9
  Accordingly, we may establish as our principle that the time to sandbag is when you have three of a kind or better, when there are at least five players to act after you, and when your hand is made up of low cards.
  1981, Oswald Jacoby, Oswald Jacoby on Poker, Garden City, N.Y.: Dolphin Books, Doubleday, page 36
4. (figurative, transitive) To blindside; to deceive; to undermine.
  Quotations
  “Sandbagged” was used by George Bush in response to the charges of stiffing. “We feel we were sandbagged,” he said, repeating the slang verb used first by his New Hampshire campaign manager. Concurrently, Joe Scott wrote in his newsletter, “The Political Animal,” that Governor Jerry Brown was “sandbagging Kennedy's surge.”
  1982, William Safire, What's the Good Word?, New York: Times Books, page 263
  The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has allowed himself to be sandbagged by his Tory partners in his otherwise laudable attempt to introduce a fairer electoral system, probably losing a once-in-a-generation opportunity for electoral reform.
  2010 July 28, Peter Hain, “Tories sandbagged Clegg on electoral reform”, in The Guardian‎
  [Shane Black:] And keep in mind, I got sandbagged by this one reporter in like 1999 or 2000. He said, "I'm a big fan of your work; I'd love to do a story on you." And after he had interviewed me, he said, "Oh, by the way, I'm going to kind of crunch your words together to make it look like you're talking. I'll sort of take my voice out of it." And it turns out the article is called “Letters from Oblivion” and it was basically about has-beens. But because he was able to put it in my own words it sounded like I was complicit in the article. Like, "As a has-been, here's what I'd like to say about it."
  2016 May 16, Zach Baron, “Why Shane Black's The Nice Guys Was 15 Years in the Making”, in GQ
  In the past month, President Trump has sideswiped certification of the Iran nuclear deal, sandbagged his own secretary of state’s diplomatic efforts with North Korea, and even provoked the ever-careful Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Bob Corker, to uncork his deepest fears in a series of bombshell interviews.
  2017 October 25, Amy Zegart, “Trump Isn't the Only Problem with Trump's Foreign Policy”, in The Atlantic‎
  Responding to Axios business editor Dan Primack's assertion that she "sandbagged" Yaccarino by springing the former executive's appearance on her, Swisher maintained that upon learning of his booking earlier Wednesday, it was the X CEO's decision to speak after Roth.
  2023 September 28, Benjamin Lindsay, “Kara Swisher Defends Ex-Twitter Exec Upstaging CEO Linda Yaccarino”, in TheWrap‎
5. To pretend to drink early on so that, as the night draws on, one can drink everybody else "under the table".