fifth column

Definitions

1. A group of people which clandestinely undermines a larger group, such as a nation, to which it is expected to be loyal.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see fifth, column.

Equivalents

Examples

“The rebels, who in November 1936 had fought to enter⟳ and failed, walked in yesterday as troops of the generally recognised Spanish Government, and not a shot was fired at them. The supporters of Franco in the city, the “fifth column” he once spoke of, had been waiting for this moment for more than two years.”

“True, we have⟳ people of the fifth column, and, unfortunately, the sixth column, with us; they have⟳ them in every country; but so far in this war the British diplomatic and secret service has not been so successful as that clever, astute brute-man Hitler and his agents.”

“Lloyd George's belief in a revolutionary fifth column [the term hadn't been coined then] driving the strike⟳ was replicated on Fleet Street. On October 1 [1919] The Times thundered: "The attempt⟳ of the strike⟳ leaders to subvert Constitutional government in this country and to starve⟳ the nation into acquiescence in their revolutionary designs will be defeated, as other onslaughts have⟳ been defeated, by the firmness of the people in defence of its liberties."”

CEFR level