fifth columnist

Variant of fifth column

fifth column definition

fifth column

  1. those people in Madrid who aided the forces of Francisco Franco in his uprising against the Spanish republic (1936-39)
  2. any group of people who aid the enemy from within their own country

Etymology: first used by the Sp Nationalist General Mola (1936), who, besieging Madrid with four columns from the outside, boasted of having a “fifth column” within

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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