Definition of night of the long knives in English:
night of the long knives
noun
A treacherous massacre or betrayal, especially the massacre of the Brownshirts on Hitler's orders in June 1934.
长刀之夜（背信弃义的屠杀或出卖，尤指1934年6月希特勒下令纳粹冲锋队进行的大屠杀）
Example sentencesExamples
Then we had this night of the long knives in which five out of six Labour ministers were axed in an act of numpty municipal factionalism.
He purged the party of any left-wing ‘socialist’ influence at the end of the 20s and totally blew them out of the water in the early 30s culminating in the murder of Rohm in the night of the long knives.
Career diplomats had feared a night of the long knives and the importation of hard-headed, and sometimes neo-conservative, ideologues from Washington think tanks.
Other victims of this quadrennial night of the long knives appear to have disappeared completely.
It has also been suggested there will be a campaign position for the former finance minister who was culled with other Cabinet figures in the so-called night of the long knives in 2001.
Partly because of conservative pressure, Hitler arrested and executed the SA's leadership on 30 June 1934-the night of the long knives.
Not only has there just been a night of the long knives at the wife's employer (from which she's thankfully escaped - but you wonder for how long) but the desk in the studio has just stopped working.
Those were the nights of the long knives, when frightened people of colour surveyed the shattered windows of their homes, or counted the bruises on their bodies.
A night of the long knives would be likely if Brown took over, and it's not just the PR men and spin doctors who would go.
There were all the signs of a night of the long knives.
People like the Finance Minister were told there would be no night of the long knives.
He has asked me to re-iterate and re-emphasise the commitment we gave prior to the last election that there will be no night of the long knives should he become Prime Minister.
Synonyms
slaughter, wholesale slaughter, mass slaughter, wholesale killing, indiscriminate killing