Word.ws English Dictionary

sell down the river

sell down the river verb: to betray, especially in a manner which causes serious difficulty for the one betrayed.

Verb

sell down the river (third-person singular simple present sells down the river, present participle selling down the river, simple past and past participle sold down the river)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) 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.1935 December 23, “Great Britain: Vampire's Caress”, in Time
    • 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 wanted1994, Scott Weiland, “Kitchenware & Candybars”, in Purple, performed by Stone Temple Pilots

sell down the river meaning in Bengali

sell down the river in Bengali

বিশ্বাসঘাতকতা করা

Synonyms of sell down the river

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of sell down the river

Forms of sell down the river

third-person singular presentsells down the river
present participleselling down the river
past participlesold down the river
pastsold down the river

Origin of sell down the river

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.”

Questions about sell down the river

What does sell down the river mean?
Sell down the river means to betray, especially in a manner which causes serious difficulty for the one betrayed.
What is sell down the river in Bengali?
Sell down the river in Bengali is বিশ্বাসঘাতকতা করা. See Sell down the river meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is sell down the river?
Sell down the river is a verb.
What is the past tense of sell down the river?
The past tense of sell down the river is sold down the river.

Words near sell down the river in the dictionary

  1. sell by the candle
  2. sell coal to Newcastle
  3. sell coals to Newcastle
  4. sell dearly
  5. sell down
  6. sell down the river
  7. sell freezers to Eskimos
  8. sell ice to Eskimos
  9. sell in May
  10. sell in May and go away
  11. sell in May and stay away

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sell down the river (page history and authors); sell down the river (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sell down the river.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sell down the river.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sell_down_the_river. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.