Word.ws English Dictionary

throw under a bus

throw under a bus is the alternative form of throw under the bus.

Meaning of throw under the bus

Verb

throw under the bus (third-person singular simple present throws under the bus, present participle throwing under the bus, simple past threw under the bus, past participle thrown under the bus)

  1. (transitive) To betray or blame (something or someone); to deliberately put (something or someone) in an unfavorable situation and then leave to their fate; to make (something or someone) into a scapegoat or otherwise abandon for personal gain.
    • "A person who does things for me and befriended me and helped me out when I needed help, I'm certainly not going to throw them under the bus," she said.1993 January 27, Steven Cronin, “Sitter: Girl ‘Asked For It,’ Woman Told Her”, in Press of Atlantic City
  2. (transitive, usually, idea) To discard or disown.
    • A recent magazine article discussed the need to throw under the bus worn-out cultural catchphrases, with the first being “throw under the bus.”2008 July 20, Ken Newton, “Local tiff is the new old thing”, in St. Joseph News-Press, US, archived from the original on 04 Dec 2008, retrieved 31 Aug 2021
    Synonyms:
    reject

Forms of throw under a bus

third-person singular presentthrows under a bus
present participlethrowing under a bus
pastthrew under a bus
past participlethrown under a bus

Questions about throw under a bus

What is throw under a bus the alternative form of?
Throw under a bus is the alternative form of throw under the bus.

Words near throw under a bus in the dictionary

  1. throw to the wind
  2. throw to the winds
  3. throw to the wolves
  4. throw together
  5. throw true
  6. throw under a bus
  7. throw under the bus
  8. throw up
  9. throw up a brick
  10. throw up one's hands
  11. throw up the sponge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw under a bus (page history and authors); throw under the bus (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “throw under a bus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/throw_under_a_bus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.