English Explanatory Dictionary

betray

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb

To deliver into the hands of an enemy by treachery or fraud, in violation of trust; to give up treacherously or faithlessly.
To prove faithless or treacherous to, as to a trust or one who trusts; to be false to; to deceive.
To violate the confidence of, by disclosing a secret, or that which one is bound in honor not to make known.
To disclose (a secret, etc.) in deliberate violation of someone’s confidence.
To disclose or indicate, for example something which prudence would conceal; to reveal unintentionally.
To mislead; to expose to inconvenience not foreseen; to lead into error or sin.
To lead astray; to seduce (as under promise of marriage) and then abandon.

Pronunciation

/bɪˈtɹeɪ/ /bəˈtɹeɪ/ en-us-betray.ogg

Word forms

betray betrays betraying betrayed

Etymology

From Middle English betrayen, bitrayen (“to commit an act of treason against”), equivalent to be- + tray (“to betray”). further etymology information Middle English bi- is from Old English be- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near, by”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“at, near”). Compare also traitor, treason, tradition. The modern sense “to disclose, discover, reveal unintentionally” is due to influence from or merger with English bewray (“to reveal, divulge”), which is similar in sound and meaning. The similarity with German betrügen, Dutch bedriegen, from Proto-West Germanic *bidreugan (“to betray, deceive”), is coincidental.

Synonyms

assfuck betray burn cop out cross out cross up double-cross do someone dirty do the dirty on false go back on knife let down play someone false quisle renegade sell sell the pass sell down the river sell down sell out stab in the back swike traitorize turncoat give away

Antonyms

keep faith

Related words

throw to the wolves throw under the bus betrayer deceive

Derived words

betrayable betrayal betrayee betrayer betrayment betray with a kiss rebetray unbetray

Translations

Bulgarian: разкривам Catalan: delatar Danish: røbe Dutch: verraden Dutch: onthullen Dutch: verspreken Finnish: paljastaa Finnish: kavaltaa German: verraten Hungarian: elárul Italian: rivelare Latin: dētegō Latin: prōdō Latin: oleō Persian: لو دادن Portuguese: revelar Romanian: descoperi Romanian: afla Russian: выдава́ть Russian: вы́дать Serbo-Croatian: odati Serbo-Croatian: pronaći Serbo-Croatian: ìzdati Slovene: izdati Spanish: delatar Spanish: demostrar Turkish: ele vermek

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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