CAMOUFLET. A term used in military mining to designate a mine charge which, when exploded, does not break the surface of the earth. Derived from Latin "calamo flatus"—a blast through a reed or pipe—it came to mean a stiffer. This form of mine is used by the defence to destroy the attackers' advancing mine-galleries without forming a crater on the surface, in which the assaulting infantry might make a lodgment. (See further FORTIFICATION and SIEGECRAFT.)