Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or marked by perfidy; treacherous. See Synonyms at faithless.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Faithless; basely treacherous; false-hearted.
- Proceeding from or characterized by perfidy or base treachery; false: as, a perfidious act. Synonyms Unfaithful, Faithless, Treacherous, Perfidious. Unfaithful represents negatively the meaning that is common to these words, but it especially means a lack of fidelity to trust or duty, a failure to perform what is due, however much may be implied in that. Faithless is negative in form, but positive in sense; the faithless man does something which is a breach of faith; the sleeping sentinel is unfaithful; the deserter is faithless. Treachery and perfidy are kinds of faithlessness. The treacherous man either betrays the confidence that is reposed in him, or lures another on to harm by deceitful appearances: as, the treacherous signals of the wrecker. The perfidious man carries treachery to the basest extreme; he betrays acknowledged and accepted obligations, and even the most sacred relationships and claims: as, Benedict Arnold and Judas are types of perfidy.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of, pertaining to, or representing perfidy; disloyal to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Guilty of perfidy; violating good faith or vows; false to trust or confidence reposed; teacherous; faithless.
- adj. Involving, or characterized by, perfidy.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans
Examples
“Then Miriam was furious, and complained to Minna about what she called her perfidious conduct; but Minna only laughed, and told her she could have Petrofsky instead. ”
John Thorndyke's Cases related by Christopher Jervis and edited by R. Austin Freeman
“We wouldn't lie to you about the history of "perfidious" -- even though the word itself suggests deceitfulness.”
“If soldiers are entitled to deal harshly with wounded enemy soldiers who might be engaged in perfidious acts, surely that entitlement can’t be contingent on holding a mini-trial right there to determine the matter.”
“Your nation have well been called perfidious, Major Counsellor.”
“From the end of 1796 the Venetian Senate secretly continued its armaments, and the whole conduct of that Government announced intentions which have been called perfidious, but the only object of which was to defeat intentions still more perfidious.”
The Memoirs of Napoleon
“Jews and Judaism are characterized as the perfidious enemy of Islam and Israel becomes the Salmon Rushdie of the nations”
“- where Jews and Judaism are characterized as the perfidious enemy of Islam, and Israel becomes the Salmon Rushdie of the nations.”
“In truth, that prayer, which, in its first wording defined the Jews as "perfidious", that is "outside the faith" and blind, had already been "changed" but never abolished by John XXIII.”
“The kind of perfidious thing, of bad faith, that is characteristic of the imperialists because imperialists do not only kill there, here, everywhere, steal, plunder, lie, they are a personification of all that is immoral and bad in the world.”
“He wouldn't have found The Albion "perfidious" in the matter of "turtle and fine living," -- which was Mrs.R. 's description of the Pharisee.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘perfidious’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Words From Don Quixote
fortuitous, conciliate, verity, encomium, wanton, inveterate, delineate, thraldom, brigantine, perfidious, inveigle, exhort and 14 more...
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P
letters starting with p
predicament, presumptuous, predilection, plausible, preeminent, plaintive, paragon, partisan, pathological, paucity, pedantic, penchant and 28 more...
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People are Scum
words that one may enjoy using to describe other people or their actions
degenerate, reprobate, scapegrace, capricious, sycophant, arbitrary, infernal, abominable, iniquitous, nefarious, philistine, sadistic and 39 more...
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New Words
Words I want to add to my working vocabulary.
picayune, elision, intimated, modicum, non sequitur, insouciant, vituperate, asperity, perfidious, gainsay, fulmination, inimical and 11 more...
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To Be or Not To Be
Words to live by (or not)
prescient, polyglot, fatuous, phlegmatic, mendacious, pithy, philistine, perspicacious, epicure, ebullient, probity, profligate and 9 more...
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No, thank you
Words with negative connotations
fetid, furtive, guile, chicanery, prevaricate, prodigal, meretricious, myopic, noisome, nominal, perfidious, perfunctory and 2 more...
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rare words that might be useful
transmogrify, fastidiousness, interiority, indecorous, procrustean, vociferous, descry, solecism, apogee, progeny, envisage, anteroom and 3 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for perfidious.
jwjarvis Man in general seems a deceitful, tricky, dangerous, perfidious animal Sep 16, 2010
yarb ...a perfidious cistern wakes me to stale
potato crisps knocking the lintel...
- Peter Reading, November 6th, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974 Jun 22, 2008