sell down the river

Rate this phrase:0.0 / 0 votes

sell down the river

To betray, especially in a manner which causes serious difficulty for the one betrayed.

Etymology:

Probably from the practice in the U.S., prior to the American Civil War, of trading in slaves who were transported via the Mississippi River:

: 29 Views

Collection Edit

Submitted on September 01, 2009

Translation

Find a translation for the sell down the river phrase in other languages:

Select another language:

Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to sell down the river

Sell like Hot Dogs sell sell sell someone a bill of goods scarf down sell one's soul sell down sell oneself scale down sell save down sell on sell out scale down

How to pronounce this phrase?

Alex
US English
David
US English
Mark
US English
Daniel
British
Libby
British
Mia
British
Karen
Australian
Hayley
Australian
Natasha
Australian
Veena
Indian
Priya
Indian
Neerja
Indian
Zira
US English
Oliver
British
Wendy
British
Fred
US English
Tessa
South African

Discuss this sell down the river phrase with the community:

0 Comments

Notify me of new comments via email.

Citation

Use the citation below to add this sell down the river definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"sell down the river." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Dec. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/sell-down-the-river_6647>.

We need you!

Help us build the largest human-edited phrases collection on the web!

The Web's Largest Resource for

Phrases, Verbs & Idioms

A Member Of The STANDS4 Network

Quiz

Are you a phrases master?

»

It's _________ cats and dogs out there.

A raining

B thundering

C storming

D snowing

Browse Phrases.com

#A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Random New Phrases