# sell down the river

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/sell-down-the-river
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To betray, especially in a manner which causes serious difficulty for the one betrayed.

## Examples

- He sold his partner down the river for a promotion.
- The manager promised to protect our jobs, but he sold us down the river to save his own position.
- After years of loyal service, the veteran employee felt betrayed when the board of directors sold him down the river to appease the shareholders.

## Origin

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.” (disputed)

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.