sixth column

noun

1. the persons residing in a country at war who are devoted to aiding the fifth column in its activities, especially by lowering morale, spreading rumors, etc.
2. the persons residing in a country at war who are devoted to blocking the efforts of the fifth column.

Example Sentences

“I was almost the sixth column that day,” he said, before approaching the bouquets that lined the floor.

From Washington Post

In 1941, he wrote Sixth Column, a novel based on a story by Campbell, in which “pan-Asians” enslave the US, which fights back with a ethnic-specific ray gun that can kill the “slanty” and “flat face”.

From The Guardian

The Times buried the story at the very bottom of the sixth column of page 7, a seven-liner consisting of the bald facts and nothing else, below the racing results from Sandown, Doncaster and Hamilton, and news of a rugby friendly between a British team on tour in New Zealand and a combined Waikato-King Country / Thames Valley side.

From The Guardian

Si loved every aspect of magazine-making and had an eye for both the grand and the infinitesimal—countless times I saw him turn to the 10th page of a P&L and find the one number in the sixth column that seemed out of whack, or he could point to the edition number on a cover spine that hadn’t been changed from the month before.

From Golf Digest

Starting it on the sixth column was a very odd decision for the Times’ constructor to make—and yet this odd decision was replicated in Parker’s version.

From Slate