Idiom
Throw someone under the bus
To throw someone under the bus means to blame or sacrifice someone, often a friend or colleague, to protect yourself or gain an advantage.
How people use it
People use it for betrayal at work, on teams and among friends: "When the project failed, he threw his assistant under the bus." It suggests disloyalty and unfairness, so it is a strong criticism. Common forms are throw someone under the bus and get thrown under the bus. It is figurative only; no one is actually pushed. The tone is informal, but the phrase is common in news and business talk.
Examples
- Leo felt thrown under the bus when his teammate blamed him for the missed shot.
- Don't throw your coworkers under the bus just because the client is upset.
- Priya refused to throw her friend under the bus, even when the teacher asked who started it.
Where it comes from
It is a fairly recent American phrase. It appears in print in the 1980s, especially in sports and music writing, and became very common in the 1990s and 2000s. No one knows for sure who first used it, but the picture of someone being shoved in front of a bus made the idea of betrayal easy to imagine.
Check yourself
1. What does it mean to throw someone under the bus?
Answer: To blame them unfairly to protect yourself. The idiom means betraying someone by shifting blame onto them.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: When the boss asked about the error, Sam threw his partner under the bus.. Blaming a partner to avoid trouble is what throwing someone under the bus means.
Similar idioms
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