MEANING
To harm or betray someone, often by blaming them, in order to protect or benefit yourself.
Use it for
describing a colleague sacrificed to avoid blame; showing betrayal for personal advantage; criticizing a public attempt to shift fault onto an ally; distinguishing unfair blame from taking responsibilityNames sacrificing another person’s interests or reputation to protect or benefit oneself. Writing functions: Betrayal / Self-protection. Semantic categories (by meaning): Betrayal / Self-protection. Contexts: General conversation; Creative prose.
Words that belong together
- throw a colleague under the bus
- refuse to throw someone under the bus
On the page
Rather than explain the missing instructions, the manager threw the newest employee under the bus.
She would defend the decision without throwing her former colleagues under the bus.
Word forms
- Base
- throw someone under the bus
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: throw/throws/threw/thrown/throwing someone under the bus. Object normally identifies a person or group sacrificed for another’s advantage. Register: informal. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
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