sapping

Noun

 * 1) The act by which something is sapped or depleted.
 * 2) * December 22, 1821,, Address Delivered Before the Members of the New-England Society, in Charleston
 * [The government] may be destroyed by popular violence, or the madness of party, or the deeper sappings of corruption.
 * 1) The act of excavating trenches.
 * 2) The act of being struck with a sap or club.