fifth column

A clandestine subversive organization working within a country to further an invading enemy's military and political aims.

[First applied in 1936 to rebel sympathizers inside Madrid when four columns of rebel troops were attacking that city.]

fifth col′um·nism (kŏl′əm-nĭz′əm) n.

fifth columnist n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

fifth columnist - a member of a clandestine subversive organization who tries to help a potential invader

saboteur

fifth column, Trojan horse - a subversive group that supports the enemy and engages in espionage or sabotage; an enemy in your midst

traitor, treasonist - someone who betrays his country by committing treason

Translations

fifth columnist

n → appartenente m/f alla quinta colonna

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

And in the ensuing general election the SNP will claim only they can negotiate and deliver independence and will paint Union-supporting parties and their voters as Scexit-stopping fifth columnist saboteurs.

Indy vote would be Brexit revisited; Letters to the editor Write to: Letters to the editor, The Press and Journal, 1 Marischal Square, Broad Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1BL. email: pj.letters@ajl.co.uk All letters are subject to editing and must include your full address and daytime telephone number for verification. Thank you

One branded Ms Rudd "the fifth columnist of a stop Brexit bandwagon" while another said all three should be sacked.

Brexit: Tories in open warfare as Cabinet ministers demand date is delayed; The trio are accused of "outrageous disloyalty" with 33 days to go as Theresa May flies to Sharm El Skeikh - and MPs prepare a Commons showdown

Of course, Liverpool once had its own town walls to support its castle, only breached by Prince Rupert's royalist army in 1644 after inside 'fifth columnist' help.

Sunday memories

Osborne - known as "a Fifth columnist for Beijing" in Brussels - has been courting Chinese investment to build new nuclear power stations and the publicly subsidised Hinkley Point.

Britain should be open for business. The Tories have put us up for sale

Our very own Fifth Columnist neocons, the Kristols, Abramses, Wolfowitzes, Perles, Feiths, Frums, and other such scummy types, are still being listened to by naive Americans instead of being silenced for their criminal propagandizing leading up to war.

A neocon anniversary

I know there's a fifth columnist under there somewhere.

Democrats not adding political insight, either

Antonio Trillanes IV denounced Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile as a "lackey" of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; Enrile countered that Trillanes was a fifth columnist and a coward.

Enrile slipped: China is a friend, not an enemy

<![CDATA[ You are a fifth columnist, National Union Knesset Member Uri Ariel accused Arab MK Taleb El-Sana, who replied, "You are a miserable wretch.

MKs Trade Verbal Punches: Fifth Columnist vs. Miserable Wretch

The fifth columnist was less the actual traitor than the "passive non-resister, a man unsure of himself and of his world," as one contemporary observer wrote.

Hemingway's the fifth column, fifth columnism, and the Spanish Civil War

Abdul Aziz, a Liberal Democrat Birmingham city councillor, has been sacked by his party on the grounds that he is alleged to be a Labour fifth columnist.

IRON ANGLE: Lib Dems, Labour and murky Aston; LOCAL GOVERNMENT WITH A SLANT

NOW the truth can be told: one of Saddam's body agents is a fifth columnist. You'll know him as Captain Haddock, Tintin's pal

Off the Record