Log in or Sign up
treacherous love

treacherous

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Guilty of or characterized by betrayal of confidence or trust; perfidious.
  • adjective Characterized by unforeseen or hidden hazards; dangerous or deceptive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Using treachery; violating allegiance or faith pledged; traitorous to the state or sovereign; perfidious in private life; betraying a trust.
  • Marked by deceitfulness or perfidy; characteristic of a traitor.
  • Having a good, fair, or sound appearance, but worthless or bad in character or quality; deceptive; not to be depended on or trusted.
  • Synonyms Faithless, etc. (see perfidious), recreant, treasonable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Like a traitor; involving treachery; violating allegiance or faith pledged; traitorous to the state or sovereign; perfidious in private life; betraying a trust; faithless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Exhibiting treachery.
  • adjective Deceitful; inclined to betray.
  • adjective Unreliable; dangerous.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans
  • adjective dangerously unstable and unpredictable

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From treacher

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word treacherous.

Examples

  • Unless the guides were treacherous, he must sight the minarets of El Obeid soon _Unless the guides were treacherous_!

    For Fortune and Glory A Story of the Soudan War Lewis Hough 1899

  • Infuriated by what he calls a treacherous and unacceptable provocation from the diplomatic mission, Cuban communist leader, Fidel Castro began building his response a few days later.

    CNN Transcript Feb 6, 2006 2006

  • Our noble captain did not get rid of his angry looks for some days, and actually wept at what he termed the treacherous conduct of the Admiralty.

    A Sailor of King George Frederick Hoffman

  • Left-wing Philippine groups are planning to hold protests outside the U.S. embassy in Manila on Saturday to denounce what they describe as the "treacherous" negotiations with the United States.

    Reuters: Press Release 2012

  • Their meeting was not cordial, nor such as men, who meet in a desert, should give each other; but I thought they would have parted in peace, until I saw one put his rifle to the other's back, and do what I call a treacherous and sinful murder.

    The Prairie James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • Calling the open-sourcing of software treacherous is a little wildly off base, where is the treachery?

    Did Open Source ever have a halo? : #comments 2007

  • The low-flying cargo planes often had to weave through mountaintops in treacherous weather conditions.

    Remains Returned List WWII 2005

  • The multiple truths of those memories are sometimes difficult, their terrain treacherous, and the stories I heard were not always as simple as heroic master narratives had wanted them to be.

    'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

  • The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his DOG.

    Think Progress » VIDEO: Byrd Takes Frist To School 2005

  • Equally treacherous is the view that the young have always been inscrutable to adults and have always complained about being misunderstood.

    The Apocalypse of Adolescence 2002

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • brtom commented on the word treacherous

    -- The others are putting on their hats, Mr Kernan said. I suppose we can do so too. We are the last. This cemetery is a treacherous place.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 6

    January 1, 2007

  • reesetee commented on the word treacherous

    My dad's favorite word to describe heavy traffic or bad driving conditions. :-)

    August 8, 2007

  • mohitanand commented on the word treacherous

    adjective: tending to betray

    Even though Jesse James was an outlaw, his killer, Robert Ford, is remembered more for his treacherous actions than for eliminating a criminal and murderer.

    adjective: dangerously unstable and unpredictable

    The bridge built from twine and vine is treacherous to walk across, and so I think I will stay put right here.

    October 19, 2016