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/fɪfθ kˈɑləm/ Listen

noun

fifth column n.

A group of persons inside the battle lines of a territory engaged in a conflict, who secretly sympathize with the enemy, and who engage in espionage or sabotage; sometimes also referred to as a trojan horse.

Hence, any faction of persons within a group who secretly sympathize with an enemy, especially those who engage in activities harmful to the group; an enemy in one's midst; a group of traitors.

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Etymology of 'Fifth column'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fifth column" Quotes from Famous Books

... third, and fourth columns are maxima, showing the highest candle-power which could be procured from each burner when the pressure was adjusted so as to cause consumption to proceed at the most economical rate. The efficiency values in the fifth column, however, are the mean values calculated so as to include all the data referring to each burner. Capelle's results have been reproduced from the original on the basis that 1 bougie decimale equals 0.98 standard English candle, which is the value he himself ascribes to it (1 bougie decimale ...

— Acetylene, The Principles Of Its Generation And Use • F. H. Leeds and W. J. Atkinson Butterfield

... Mexico and the Panama Canal Zone disclosed an espionage network directed by the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis and operating against the peace and security of the United States. A scrutiny of the Nazi Fifth Column[1] in a few European countries, especially in Czechoslovakia just before that Republic was turned over to Germany's mercy by the Munich "peace" and in France where Nazi and Italian agents built an amazing secret underground army, has made the fascist activities in the ...

— Secret Armies - The New Technique of Nazi Warfare • John L. Spivak

... the count Jozerans The fifth column have mustered, of Normans, A thousand score, or so say all the Franks; Well armed are they, their horses charge and prance; Rather they'ld die, than eer be recreant; No race neath heav'n can more in th'field compass. Richard the old, lead them in th'field he shall, He'll strike hard there ...

— The Song of Roland • Anonymous

... following table. The first column gives the number of the song and the second the page in this book; the third column gives the beginning of each song in English; the fourth gives the beginning of each song in Latin. The references in the fifth column are to the little anthology called Gaudeamus (Leipzig, Teubner, 1879); those in the sixth column are to the printed edition of the Benedictbeuern Codex, which goes by the title of Carmina Burana (Stuttgart, auf Kosten das Literarischen Vereins, ...

— Wine, Women, and Song - Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse • Various

... modification was in progress. The original palace ran beside the Rio del Palazzo from S. Mark's towers to the Ponte di Paglia, with a wing along the lagoon. Its width was equal to that from the present Noah or Vine Corner by the Ponte di Paglia to the fifth column from that corner. Its wing extended to the Piazzetta. A wall and moat protected it, the extent of its ramparts being practically identical with the extent of the present building. This, the first, palace was erected in the ninth ...

— A Wanderer in Venice • E.V. Lucas