Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by betrayal of fidelity, confidence, or trust; perfidious. See Synonyms at faithless.
- adj. Not to be relied on; not dependable or trustworthy.
- adj. Marked by unforeseen hazards; dangerous or deceptive: treacherous waters.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
Wiktionary
- adj. Exhibiting treachery.
- adj. Deceitful; inclined to betray.
- adj. Unreliable; dangerous.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Like a traitor; involving treachery; violating allegiance or faith pledged; traitorous to the state or sovereign; perfidious in private life; betraying a trust; faithless.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans
- adj. dangerously unstable and unpredictable
Etymologies
- From treacher (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Unless the guides were treacherous, he must sight the minarets of El Obeid soon _Unless the guides were treacherous_!”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Calling the open-sourcing of software treacherous is a little wildly off base, where is the treachery?”
“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.”
“The low-flying cargo planes often had to weave through mountaintops in treacherous weather conditions.”
“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
“Equally treacherous is the view that the young have always been inscrutable to adults and have always complained about being misunderstood.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘treacherous’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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jilma's list
favorite sounding words
alchemy, missoula, tenacity, colibrí, lilith, tangible, tangle, emblazoned, brazen, willowy, baroque, macabre and 35 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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D_Verbatim
sporadic, peculiar, treacherous, niche, ambiance, ruckus, notion, voyeurism, exclusion, proselytize, opaque, perverse and 12 more...
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Adjectives
impressive growth, significant, outstanding, an AILING person ..., sick, a HUMBLE person -..., DISARMING critics..., VAIN - напрасный,..., unavailing, IGNOMINOUS - пост..., shameful, ignoble and 34 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Go over
mollify, obstinate, obviate, occlude, onerous, obscure, paragon, pedantic, perfunctory, placate, placid, prodigal and 364 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1826 more...
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Neww
specious, disdainfully, vehemently, in lieu of, dismissive, perpetual, preposterous, impasse, fathom, conversely, repugnant, clogged and 142 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Vocabulary Words
words to reference while writing something
cohesive, epitome, tempered, imply, prudent, sundry, sagest, agitation, giddy, disposition, inclination, gracious and 114 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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1stDay
lucid, tenacious, adhesive, cling, reconcile, scenic, picturesque, inundate, gastrointestinal, diarrhea, heredity, alimentary canal and 89 more...
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Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
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Wordplay
reticent, slammerkin, moonstruck, zephyr, gallivant, hullabaloo, pandemonium, equestrian, wallflower, martyr, threadbare, treacherous and 180 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for treacherous.
reesetee My dad's favorite word to describe heavy traffic or bad driving conditions. :-) Aug 8, 2007
brtom -- 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 Dec 31, 2006