column

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a little from column A, a little from column B

Having been formed from two distinct factors, elements, or reasons. She asked me if I drew more from real life or from my imagination when writing; in truth, it's a little from column A and a little from column B.
See also: column, little

fifth column

A clandestine group of people who work subversively within a group, organization, or country in order to betray it to an allied outside force. In the US during the Cold War, there was constant fear and suspicion of people supposedly working in a fifth column to spread the influence of communism from within.
See also: column, fifth

dodge the column

To avoid doing some job or task. Primarily heard in UK. Oh, she's not really sick—she's just trying to dodge the column and leave me with all her work!
See also: column, dodge

fifth column

A secret subversive group that works against a country or organization from the inside, as in The government feared that there was a fifth column working to oppose its policies during the crisis . This term was invented by General Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War in a radio broadcast on October 16, 1936, in which he said that he had una quinta columna ("a fifth column") of sympathizers for General Franco among the Republicans holding the city of Madrid, and it would join his four columns of troops when they attacked. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway and later extended to any traitorous insiders.
See also: column, fifth

dodge the column

shirk your duty; avoid work. British informal
Column is a military term which refers to the usual formation of troops for marching.
See also: column, dodge

fifth column

an organized group of people sympathizing with and working for the enemy within a country at war or otherwise under attack.
Fifth column is a translation of the Spanish phrase quinta columna : during the Spanish Civil War, an extra body of supporters was claimed by General Mola as being within Madrid when he besieged the city with four columns of Nationalist forces in 1936 .
See also: column, fifth
References in periodicals archive ?
Like the other stations, Petrovsky Park station is a columned triple-hall shallow level station with an island platform 163 metres long and 12 metres wide.
Russian Federation : Sergei Sobyanin opens first section of the metros new Large Circle Line
1% longer than participants using the columned formats (92.
College of American Pathologists Cancer Protocols: Optimizing Format for Accuracy and Efficiency
The square in front of the central columned entrance hall with the illuminated tetrapylon is visible from some distance.
New Trade Fair, Rimini, Italy
Family and friends gathered in the courtyard to witness the couple exchange their vows beneath the columned veranda.
Smith & Beall
The New York Stock Exchange's columned neo-Classical building is as instantly recognizable as the ceremonial ringing of the opening and closing bells, its floor brokers the embodiment of the frenzied pace of the market.
U.S. editorial excerpts
The columned loggia narrows slightly as it continues along the breakfast nook and finally ends with a built-in grill conveniently located off the indoor kitchen.
Stepping out: a view from the terrace
CPA Jim Metzler, AICPA vice-president for small firm interests, worked with "mechanical pencils, a giant nine--key adding machine, columned pads and colored pencils" when he joined the profession in 1970.
Not your grandfather's CPA firm: is anything the same a hundred years later? Only the CPAs' skills and credibility
Researchers also excavated, from beneath about a meter of sand, remnants of a large columned building that may have been the political and economic center of the community, says Ryz Evangelista, a geophysicist who studied the site and now works for the resource-exploration company WMC Resources in Belmont, Western Australia.
Seeing past the dirt: using ground-penetrating radar to focus archaeological digs
We see Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home with its domed and columned designs and the University of Virginia.
What is Colonial American architecture?
A columned monument on the quay and a Claude-like temple under the cliff add to the picture's beatific stillness.
Art notes: a deferred gift to the London National Gallery
The columned gateway would provide a formal entrance and would be flanked on each side by sets of two-tiered grassy, amphitheater-style seating.
UO plans to put a new face on an old gateway at Hayward
From the cut of the female costumes to the balanced and symmetrical movement of Jeannette Zingg's extensive choreography to the columned formality of Gerard Gauci's sets, the visual complemented the deliberate aural simplification of Gluck's reformed musical style.
Iphigenie En Tauride
Indeed, in downtown San Diego, a carving above the ornate entrance to the regally columned county office building reads simply: "The Noblest Motive is the Public Good.
'Tis the season to give thanks
An elegant pediment tops the columned entry porch of this two-story home.
Historical touch. (Builder Plans). (4 bedrooms, 3 baths home)
What astonished Goddio even more was a sunken world of intact houses, columned shrines, and even gold coins and jewelry.
Buried Cities
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