disloyal
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of disloyal
1470–80; < Middle French desloial, Old French desleal, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + leal loyal
Explanation
If you're disloyal, you're not faithful or trustworthy — you can't be depended on by those who put their trust in you. It would be disloyal to join in with a group of people gossiping about your best friend. It's disloyal when a country violates a signed treaty, and it's disloyal for a citizen to spy for a foreign state against its own government. But it's also disloyal to betray the trust of someone in your life. A disloyal sibling tattles on his brothers and sisters, and a disloyal friend won't keep your secrets. This adjective comes from the Old French desloial, "treacherous or deceitful," which adds the prefix des-, "the opposite of," to loial, "faithful."
Vocabulary lists containing disloyal
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That includes two people who've read Donald Trump's book, Art of the Deal, and one who read the first 10 pages of key witness Michael Cohen's memoir, Disloyal.
From BBC • Apr. 18, 2024
The book, "Disloyal: A Memoir" topped the New York Times' hardcover nonfiction best-seller list in September 2020.
From Reuters • Apr. 24, 2023
“I have been described as a corrupt man. Greedy for money. Disloyal to the pope. Concerned only with the welfare of my family,” Becciu told the court Thursday.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 17, 2022
He cooperated with investigators while the 45th president was still in office and published a book, Disloyal, while completing a three-year sentence at home in New York.
From The Guardian • Feb. 8, 2021
Disloyal emissaries have been neither less assiduous nor more successful during the last year than they were before that time in their efforts, under favor of that privilege, to embroil our country in foreign wars.
From A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 6, part 1: Abraham Lincoln by Richardson, James D. (James Daniel)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
