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Glite Dictionary
to sell down the river

to sell down the river

12 8.8
To betray someone to get something for yourself
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : vender a (informal)
  • Looks like your old man's selling us down the river.
  • sell your brother down the river
  • going to sell you down the river
  • think I sold you down the river

And from our point of view as a Marine, Patton was sold down the river by Eisenhower and FDR.

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Examples

  • I'm Irish, and our future has been sold down the river to pay for the gambling debts of others.

    Blog text (12)

  • And I think the American people have had enough of high-handed boys who use their tax dollars while they sell this country down the river.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • You think he sold us down the river?

    All the Pretty Horses (2000)

  • Both political parties have sold them down the river over the last 30 years.

    Blog text (5)

  • I think that artists have been sold down the river.

    Blog text (22)

  • But most of all, through our leadership class, who sell us down the river whenever it's in their interest.

    Blog text (3)

  • I promise to expose and to continue to expose the people that have sold this country down the river!

    Nixon (1995)

  • He's selling us down the river.

    Small Soldiers (1998)

  • In my career, I've seen dozens of employees sold down the river by unions because the union was in league with the administration.

    Blog text (16)

  • I can't believe he would sell down the river his own friend just for a promotion.

Synonyms

to sell
vsto sell down the river
  • Informal
642 7.9

To betray someone for personal gain

is the idiomatic, informal phrase used for that action
to betray
vsto sell down the river
111 4.1

Give people or information to an enemy

adds the idea of doing it for personal advantage or benefit
to sell someone out
vsto sell down the river
  • Informal
109 5.9

Betray someone by telling their secrets to others for personal gain

is broader, meaning harm or abandon someone to gain advantage
to double-cross
vsto sell down the river
32 6.5

Betray someone who trusts you after pretending to help them

is more general, meaning disloyal action for personal benefit without pretending first
to backstab
vsto sell down the river
  • Informal
5 6.6

To secretly betray someone who trusts you

can be open or hidden disloyalty done mainly for personal gain
to sell one's own grandmother
vsto sell down the river
  • Informal
9.9

To betray or use close family to get something for yourself

does the same but without stressing extreme willingness to harm loved ones
to cut someone's throat
vsto sell down the river
  • Offensive
8.4

To betray or hurt someone to get an advantage

is about treacherous disloyalty for personal advantage rather than physical harm

Antonyms

loyalty
503 1.3

Strong and lasting support for a person, group, or idea

How Loyal

to support
∞ 1.0
to let down
210 2.9
to sell down the river
  • Informal
12 8.8

Surface Forms

sell down the river infinitive
selling down the river present participle
sells down the river third person singular
sold down the river past
sold down the river past participle

Morphology

sell + down + the + river

The idiomatic sense 'to betray' cannot be reliably derived from the literal constituents: while 'sell' can hint at betrayal in some contexts, the sequence 'down the river' is arbitrary and does not signal that meaning to a learner. The expression is conventionalized and historically specific, so a B1 learner who knows the individual words would be unlikely to infer the betrayed/abandoned sense without prior exposure.

Etymology

Sell down the river comes from the time of slavery in the United States. Slave owners sometimes sold people down the river to faraway plantations where life was much worse, so the act felt like a deep betrayal. That's why today it means 'to betray someone'.