stab\ in\ the\ back

stab\ in\ the\ back
I. v. phr. slang
To say or do something unfair that harms (a friend or someone who trusts you).

Owen stabbed his friend Max in the back by telling lies about him.

II. n. phr. slang
An act or a lie that hurts a friend or trusting person; a promise not kept, especially to a friend.

John stabbed his own friend in the back by stealing from his store.

My friend stabbed me in the back by telling the teacher I was playing hooky when I was home sick.


Словарь американских идиом. — СПб., Изд-во "Лань". . 1997.

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  • Stab-in-the-back legend — An illustration from an 1919 Austrian postcard showing a caricatured Jew stabbing the German Army in the back with a dagger. The capitulation was blamed upon the unpatriotic populace, the Socialists, Bolsheviks, the Weimar Republic, and… …   Wikipedia

  • stab in the back(2) — {n. phr.}, {slang} An act or a lie that hurts a friend or trusting person; a promise not kept, especially to a friend. * /John stabbed his own friend in the back by stealing from his store./ * /My friend stabbed me in the back by telling the… …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • stab in the back(2) — {n. phr.}, {slang} An act or a lie that hurts a friend or trusting person; a promise not kept, especially to a friend. * /John stabbed his own friend in the back by stealing from his store./ * /My friend stabbed me in the back by telling the… …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • stab in the back —    If someone stabs you in the back, they betray you by doing something harmful to you when you thought you could trust them.     His best friend stabbed him in the back by voting against him …   English Idioms & idiomatic expressions

  • stab in the back — just two months after I got her hired, she stabbed me in the back Syn: betray, be disloyal to, be unfaithful to, desert, break one s promise to, double cross, break faith with, sell out, play false, inform on/against; informal tell on, sell down… …   Thesaurus of popular words

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