throw someone under the bus

Meaning: To betray or blame someone to save oneself.

Language: English

Literally: (Already vivid in English)

Example: “When the project failed, the manager threw his assistant under the bus.”

Category: Daily Life

Origin: American slang that became common in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in politics and sports.

Equivalents in other languages

Spanish: poner a los pies de los caballos — literally: to put at the feet of the horses
French: Glisser une peau de banane — literally: To slip someone a banana skin

take stock — To review a situation carefully before deciding what to do.
with pomp and circumstance — With great ceremony and display.
reinvent the wheel — To waste effort creating something that already exists.
a Pyrrhic victory — A win that costs so much it is almost a defeat.
go to rack and ruin — To fall into a state of decay through neglect.
an old wives' tale — A traditional belief, especially about health, that is not true.

protect one's turf — To defend one's area of control or responsibility against others.
chase rainbows — To pursue something unrealistic.
on one's toes — Alert and ready to react.
left high and dry — Stranded or abandoned without help.
a pen-pusher — A clerk or bureaucrat doing dull paperwork.
a word to the wise — A hint or warning that a sensible person will heed.

Poshlost' — Not merely the trashy, but the falsely important, falsely beautiful and falsely clever —…
Nadryv — An uncontrolled outpouring of buried feeling, often strained past anything the person tru…
Yurodivy — One who plays the fool deliberately as a religious act, and is therefore licensed to spea…