STAB IN THE BACK, A Definition & Meaning

stab in the back, a

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Idioms and Phrases

A betrayal of trust, an act of treachery, as in Voting against our bill at the last minute was a real stab in the back . It is also put as stab someone in the back , meaning “betray someone.” For example, Don't trust George; he's been known to stab his friends in the back . Both the noun and verb forms of this idiom, alluding to a physical attack when one's back is turned, date from the early 1900s.

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Example Sentences

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The nickname of the Mirror’s main pub indicates another use made of such establishments: “The Stab in the Back”, a name so entrenched it has eclipsed the original name of the White Hart.

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Responding, Wallace said: “You used some very strong words, ‘stab in the back’, ‘a special place in hell’.

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After Vladimir Putin declared Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet near the Syrian border to be a “stab in the back”, a chill has descended over Russian-Turkish relations.

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It is a stab in the back, a cowardly assassination of the heart.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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stab in the back, a

Idioms and Phrases

Example Sentences