sell down the river
verbEtymology
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: :* Mark Twain (1885), chapter 42, in Huckleberry Finn: “"[H]e ain't no slave. . . . Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to sell him down the river, and said so; and she set him free in her will."” :* Colin Woodard (2011), chapter 18, in American nations: "The least fortunate wound up on the sugar plantations of southern Louisiana and Mississippi, where it was sometimes profitable to work one’s slaves to death. Being “sold down the river” originally referred to slaves being sold by Appalachian people in Kentucky and Tennessee to downriver plantation owners in the Deep South.”
Definitions
To betray, especially in a manner which causes serious difficulty for the one betrayed.
- [T]he Prime Minister was listened to with respect when he replied to Opposition hints that Ethiopia was being sold down the river because Britain was afraid she or her ships might suddenly be attacked by Italian airmen.
- Somebody told me, I know where to go Somebody showed me, I was last to know Sell me down the river Sell me down the river Sell me down the river Sell me down the river What I wanted is what we wanted What we wanted is what she wanted
- "But screw it, this bastard is selling America down the river. He's a traitor."
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for sell down the river. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA