Definitions

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

  • noun One who betrays one's country, a cause, or a trust, especially one who commits treason.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To act the traitor toward; betray.
  • noun One who violates his allegiance and betrays his country; one who is guilty of treason. See treason.
  • noun One who betrays any trust; a person guilty of perfidy or treachery; one who violates confidence reposed in him.
  • noun Synonyms Rebel, etc. See insurgent.
  • Of or pertaining to a traitor; traitorous.

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

  • noun One who violates his allegiance and betrays his country; one guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to an enemy, or yields up any fort or place intrusted to his defense, or surrenders an army or body of troops to the enemy, unless when vanquished; also, one who takes arms and levies war against his country; or one who aids an enemy in conquering his country. See treason.
  • noun Hence, one who betrays any confidence or trust; a betrayer.
  • adjective rare Traitorous.
  • transitive verb obsolete To act the traitor toward; to betray; to deceive.

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

  • noun One who violates his allegiance and betrays his/her country; one guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to an enemy, or yields up any fort or place intrusted to his defense, or surrenders an army or body of troops to the enemy, unless when vanquished; also, one who takes arms and levies war against his country; or one who aids an enemy in conquering his country.
  • noun Hence, one who betrays any confidence or trust; a betrayer.
  • verb To act the traitor toward; to betray; to deceive.
  • adjective traitorous.

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

  • noun a person who says one thing and does another
  • noun someone who betrays his country by committing treason

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin trāditor, from trāditus, past participle of trādere, to betray; see tradition.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French traïtor (French: traître), from Latin traditor.

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