treacherous

  • 1Treacherous — Treach er*ous, a. [See {Treacher}.] Like a traitor; involving treachery; violating allegiance or faith pledged; traitorous to the state or sovereign; perfidious in private life; betraying a trust; faithless. [1913 Webster] Loyal father of a… …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 2treacherous — [adj1] dishonest, disloyal betraying, catchy, deceitful, deceptive, doublecrossing*, double dealing*, duplicitous, faithless, false, false hearted, fly by night*, insidious, misleading, perfidious, recreant, shifty*, slick*, slippery*, snake in… …

    New thesaurus

  • 3treacherous — ► ADJECTIVE 1) guilty of or involving betrayal. 2) having hidden or unpredictable dangers: treacherous currents. DERIVATIVES treacherously adverb treacherousness noun treachery noun. ORIGIN Old French trecherous, from trechier to cheat …

    English terms dictionary

  • 4treacherous — [trech′ər əs] adj. [ME trecherous < OFr trecheros] 1. characterized by treachery; traitorous; disloyal; perfidious 2. giving a false appearance of safety or reliability; untrustworthy or insecure [treacherous rocks] SYN. FAITHLESS… …

    English World dictionary

  • 5treacherous — index aleatory (perilous), bad (offensive), collusive, cruel, dangerous, detrimental, dishonest …

    Law dictionary

  • 6treacherous — (adj.) early 14c., from O.Fr. trecheros (12c.), from trecheur, agent noun from trechier to cheat, trick (see TRICK (Cf. trick)). Figuratively, of things, from c.1600. Related: Treacherously; treacherousness …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 7treacherous — *perfidious, traitorous, *faithless, false, disloyal Analogous words: betraying, deceiving, misleading, double crossing (see DECEIVE): seditious, mutinous, rebellious (see INSUBORDINATE): *dangerous, perilous …

    New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • 8treacherous — treach|e|rous [ˈtretʃərəs] adj 1.) someone who is treacherous cannot be trusted because they are not loyal and secretly intend to harm you ▪ a sly and treacherous woman ▪ a treacherous plot to overthrow the leader 2.) ground, roads, weather… …

    Dictionary of contemporary English

  • 9treacherous — [[t]tre̱tʃərəs[/t]] 1) ADJ GRADED If you describe someone as treacherous, you mean that they are likely to betray you and cannot be trusted. He publicly left the party and denounced its treacherous leaders... The President spoke of the… …

    English dictionary

  • 10treacherous — treach|er|ous [ tretʃərəs ] adjective 1. ) very dangerous, especially because the dangers are not obvious: Is it wise to go out in this treacherous weather? a treacherous road/path/journey 2. ) someone who is treacherous pretends that they… …

    Usage of the words and phrases in modern English