Definitions

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

  • adjective Not adhering to promises, obligations, or allegiances; disloyal. synonym: faithless.
  • adjective Breaking trust in a marriage or relationship by having sexual relations with someone other than one's spouse or sexual partner.
  • adjective Not justly representing or reflecting the facts or a primary source; inaccurate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not faithful; not observant of promises, vows, allegiance, or duty.
  • Not performing the proper duty or function.
  • Not possessing faith; unbelieving; impious; infidel. Not trustworthy; inexact; not conforming to the letter and spirit: as, an unfaithful account; an unfaithful translation.
  • Synonyms Faithless, etc. (see perfidious); derelict.

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

  • adjective Not faithful; not observant of promises, vows, allegiance, or duty; violating trust or confidence; treacherous; perfidious
  • adjective rare Not possessing faith; infidel.

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

  • adjective Not having religious faith
  • adjective Not keeping good faith; disloyal; not faithful
  • adjective Not honest or upright
  • adjective Of a translation: incorrect
  • adjective Adulterous

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

  • adjective having sexual relations with someone other than your husband or wife, or your boyfriend or girlfriend
  • adjective not trustworthy
  • adjective having the character of, or characteristic of, a traitor
  • adjective not true to duty or obligation or promises

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From un- +‎ faithful

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Examples

  • Of course the term unfaithful isn't quite accurate.

    Jill Brooke: Not a Fish Tale: Female Promiscuity Leads to Better Sperm 2009

  • This, however, should be said for the negroes in such a case: they call their unfaithful treasurer "a thief," they do not say "defaulter."

    Our Brother in Black: His Freedom and His Future Atticus Greene 1881

  • We don't like politicians who have been unfaithful, and the last few years have brought a spate of them: Schwarzenegger, Sanford, Edwards, Spitzer, Craig, Giuliani, McGreevey and, depending on your definition of unfaithful, Weiner.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Vicki Larson 2011

  • Through the declaration, loyalists of al Shabaab could kill a murtad (a person classified as unfaithful) on sight.

    [unknown placeholder $my.siteName$] 2010

  • But for those who subscribe to Robertson's theodicy - imbued with violent apocalyptic images and cryptic messages of a God who must punish the "unfaithful" - this disaster is a deserved suffering Haiti is experiencing; and therefore, for Haiti to wash away its sins of the past, this disaster is an act of redemptive suffering.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com 2010

  • We were called unfaithful for not naturalizing ourselves, when naturalization means only that we should give up our original citizenship and get nothing in return, and become subject to disabilities.

    The Transvaal from Within A Private Record of Public Affairs 1896

  • Words of amazement from the Mother of God to the bride, and about five houses in the world whose inhabitants represent five states of people, namely unfaithful Christians, obstinate

    WN.com - Photown News 2010

  • Words of amazement from the Mother of God to the bride, and about five houses in the world whose inhabitants represent five states of people, namely unfaithful Christians, obstinate Jews and pagans separately, Jews and Pagans together, and the friends of God.

    WN.com - Photown News 2010

  • Words of amazement from the Mother of God to the bride, and about five houses in the world whose inhabitants represent five states of people, namely unfaithful Christians, obstinate

    WN.com - Photown News 2010

  • Words of amazement from the Mother of God to the bride, and about five houses in the world whose inhabitants represent five states of people, namely unfaithful Christians, obstinate Jews and pagans separately, Jews and Pagans together, and the friends of God.

    WN.com - Photown News 2010

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