stab in the back

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stab in the back (plural stabs in the back)

1. An act of betrayal or treachery.
   • 2009 March 30, Dick Cheney, quotee, “Albion, I stab at thee”, in The Economist‎, →ISSN:

     Vice-President Dick Cheney viewed the move by Britain—“perfidious Albion,” as he put it—as “a stab in the back,” according to a former senior intelligence official.

   • 2023 June 28, Julian E. Barnes, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, “Russian General Knew About Mercenary Chief’s Rebellion Plans, U.S. Officials Say”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Another Russian general — Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev — made his own video appeal, calling any actions against the Russian state a “stab in the back of the country and president.”

stab in the back (third-person singular simple present stabs in the back, present participle stabbing in the back, simple past and past participle stabbed in the back)

1. (idiomatic) To betray (somebody).
   • 2017 November, N. K. Jemisin, Mac Walters, chapter 5, in Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation‎, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 96:

     “What concerns me,” Ryder said, as if they’d been having an entirely different conversation, “is that you’re angry right now, Harper. Menoris was a teammate and you trusted her; I get that. Everyone’s been stabbed in the back at some point or another. But are you going to Illium to complete the mission, or to get revenge?”

   • 2021 February 10, Richard Clinnick, “Network News: Fears of pay freeze prompt union strike threat”, in RAIL, number 924, page 24:

     Speaking on February 1, Cash said: "Today, transport workers who are risking their lives keeping our country moving have found out they have been stabbed in the back by the Government, who have extended the public sector pay freeze to the transport sector […] .

• stab-in-the-back myth

• backstabber